Of Holi and Sparrows...

Holi..

There was a Holi party in office on Friday. I am not a big fan of parties. I feel lost in parties whether it is office parties or functions at a relative's place. I only go to parties for food! So my primary purpose of going to the party was food, especially chaat! it is soo long I had gone to a wedding! I had everything from chhole kulcha, pav bhaaji, glo gappe, tikki, macaroni, aloo, dinner. My purpose was solved. I had gone prepared that I will not play Holi at all but I guess was expecting too much, as soon as I entered, I was smeared all over and once you are smeared it is really no point running away from the colours. Everyone, except one person, was completely splashed in colours! Else party was ok.. as usual I was feeling lost when people were drinking and dancing...and I was busy eating :)

Meanwhile I was thinking of Holi. I had only associated Holi with हिरन्यकश्यप-प्रह्लाद-होलिका and knew that people celebrate Holi with much vigour in Vrindavan as it is associated with रास लीला. Today Brunch carried some famous legends on Holi. Apparently,  कृष्ण was jealous of the fair colour of राधा, so he smeared her with colours and that is why we celebrate Holi. There was one more story associated with  शिव पार्वती. It's so fascinating! I absolutely love Indian mythology. I think Greek and Indian mythology have some of the most fascinating stories ever! I saw some amazing pics on Holi.. it is absolutely brilliant. I just want to buy a camera. Here is the link!! Stunning!! I have got these pics from there only!

I think Holi is one festival that epitomises human soul. Each of us has different colours in us - red, green, blue, yellow, pink, black, grey. These colours represent various traits in us. Our soul is a melange of all these colours, however the amount of colour is different in each of us and that is what gives us our individual personalities. That is why perhaps I love India so much, beautiful to the core...

And finally I got my एक चुटकी सिंदूर... see the pic.. एक चुटकी सिंदूर की कीमत तुम क्या जानो रमेश बाबु! ईश्वर का आशीर्वाद होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर, औरत के सर का ताज होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर, हर नारी का ख्वाब होता है एक चुटकी सिंदूर! 

Also, today is World Sparrow Day as well. Haven't these beautiful birds simply disappeared? Earlier I used to wake up at the sound of the sparrows but these days I am lucky if I spot one. Sparrows remind me of my childhood and I believe that we should try to preserve memories of our childhood as far as possible. What else will remind us of that? That is why I refused mummy from throwing away my school blazer and the antique watch she had got on her wedding! Sparrows also remind me of the Class 11 story, The Portrait of A Lady by Khushwant Singh. I miss these sparrows. Hope they come back. And isn't it ironical that we are fascinated by the artificial tweets on twitter and hardly care about the birds that bring the real tweets to us...It's an unfair world with unfair comparisons...