Day 72: Holi

The 100 Day Writing Project

From the past twelve years or so, since my sister got married, I have been celebrating Holi with her family-her husband, children and my eldest sister and her family. After I got married, my husband joined the roster too. It is an unsaid tradition wherein I would go and stay at her place for a few days prior to Holi where we would celebrate at her house then move to my eldest sister’s house, often without telling her though she mildly always expects us anyway. What follows is a blur of colours and water and running around and dumping buckets of coloured water on each other’s heads.

As children we never celebrated Holi and it used to sting. Even a smear of colour would bring me immense joy and now as grown ups we go all out. None of us three siblings voice it, but we are making up for all the lost time, self inviting ourselves to each other’s houses and smearing colour on each other as a form of love and nostalgia of what we didn’t have when we were younger. The kids and husbands join us in the reverie, but in essence it is us three who are making up for all the lost Holi’s of about twenty years. And for this grace, I will always be grateful.