Campus Holi: An unforgettable day at college !

No matter how much I seem to involve myself into college events, and fulfill my virtue of living in the moment, there’re always too many other affairs and episodes still left to enjoy; you never know what’s coming next! It’s this very ambiguity that makes life random and unpredictable. In this blog post, I’m going to share with y’all a capricious instance of my life—an unanticipated incident that befell on the infamous festival of Holi!

The concept of Holi was not new to my understanding. Being a north Indian, I know what Holi is all about—a crazy festival where people smear and drench their dear ones in a myriad of colors. Celebrated on the full-moon day of ‘Phalguna’ (February – March), the vibrant festival of Holi venerates many mythological and geological events: legend of Holika, the beginning of spring, the farewell to winter, the beginning of new calendar for Hindus, and many more. On this day, the streets, parks, terraces and facades of buildings turn into vibrant playgrounds as the carnival of colors gets people under its intoxicating influence. Peoples of all age chase and color each other with dry powder and colored water, with some carrying water guns and colored water-filled balloons for their water fight. No one is exempted in the game—friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children or elders. There is music, dance, jokes, chitchats, delicious foods and drinks too!

For me, however, Holi used to be quite an incommodious festival—an annoying experience I should say! I hated the idea of even a single drop of synthetic color touching my skin. While my tinted friends would loiter about the streets, howling ‘holi hai’ like a scary banshee, I used to lock myself up in a quiet room with provisions for the entire day. I enjoyed my favorite television shows the whole day in ultimate equanimity, which otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed to watch!

Then came a turning point in my life: having finished my high school, I moved to the south Indian city of Bangalore to pursue my graduation from Acharya Institutes of Technology.

Being a fresher to the college, I was not much accustomed to the cultures of this campus; and to be more specific, to the cultures of this alien city of Bangalore. With a notion that people in south India don’t celebrate holi, I solemnly set out for the college early in the morning that day dressed in my sparkling uniforms, and my favorite pair of contacts. The streets appeared to be normal as compared to what one would observe in north India—shops were open and children could be seen toddling their way to schools.

As I reached the college, I was awestruck! The whole campus had turned into a vibrant playground, just like the one we used to observe in our streets. The seniors were moving around camouflaged in a multihued zest, waiting impatiently to put colors on our squeaky-clean faces!

Together with two of my friends, I ran to save myself from the cascade of colors. We were chased all the way through campus, and finally landed up in the collage stadium. The whole stadium was crowded and what we saw there left us completely flabbergasted! There where thousands of students in the stadium dashing about in excitement, with bodies smeared with nasty paints. Boys and girls were intentionally rubbing against each other to contaminate theselves with profound colours. By the time we could retreat, our hands and faces were already dyed red and yellow. We could do nothing but surrender to the madness!

The amplifying rave continued to attract students from all departments, and soon the whole territory was engulfed by a lively crowd of enthusiasts. Boys and girls, in all their impishness, hurdled onto the dance floor unleashing the inner boogie beast as the music unfolded from a far off platform. The dancing mob appeared to be expanding with every beat of music, and soon we found ourselves to be a part of it. The whole place had turned into a daytime discotheque!

While we continued to enjoy the party ambience, painting the faces of friends and even strangers with vivid colors, we had a sudden—but belated—realization: we realized that our uniforms had been irretrievably blemished with persistent colors. To me, the realization was even more startling as I remembered I had forgotten to take my contacts off! The world around me started to appear cherry.

The worse was about to come, however!  A gang of feral undergraduates, almost naked and smeared with profound colors from head to toe,   started like wind from corners of the playground and, in full enthusiasm, initiated an unruly game of indignity. By the time we could figure out what these impish freaks are up to, they bumped into our assemblage and involved us in their nasty game—stripping each other of our clothes! Within minutes our dyed t-shirts could be found lolling on the ground, torn and smudged with filth.

The teaming playground, flushed with a messy excitement, made a big impression on we fresher men.

The authority, niggled by the swelling audacity,   summoned cops to charge the rowdy crowd out of the piazza, towards a full-scale water tanker that was especially arranged for we untidy students to clean ourselves It was a fulfilling experience for us, and for me it was especially a thought-changing one! I felt so addicted to the party ambience that I wished we could stay there for longer. However, it was time for us to make tracks. What made Holi even more remarkable was the inevitable mortification, which we faced the moment we left the college playground and entered into the frontage of our campus. Our faculties were looking at us  in profound amusement, and the pristine girls in the foyer seemed to be making fun of our vibrant nakedness!