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Chennai celebrates Holi
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Holi, the festival of colour, was celebrated on March 29, with great fun and fervour. PRINCE FREDERICK reports.
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It was a day of colour on March 29 when the city celebrated Holi. People doused in colour were seen everywhere. They sat next to you at the teashop and raced past you on the roads. To cut a long story short, they painted the town red, blue, green and all the colours that man's ingenuity could extract from Nature. It was Holi for Chennai's North Indian population. A time for colour, sweets and friendship.
Veer Singh, from Rajasthan, says, ``A number of sweets are made for the festival. Some of them are khaja, shakli and khihiya. We also get high on bhang.'' It's ten years since he came to Chennai and started his transport business on Wall Tax Road. And the ardour for celebrating Holi has not flagged.
What is the significance of Holi? ``There are a number of them. It would take all of those papers to write down the meanings,'' he says, pointing to the clutch of unwritten papers that I'm holding.
On Mint Street walk three young men. They have enough hue from head to toe to scare a child. Talking to them, amidst the revelry, one learns that all of them are from Rajasthan. Rajesh Agarwal is working as a senior sales executive in a publishing company in Chennai; Narendra Verma is a diamond merchant and Pankaj Mundra is a student who ``earns while he learns''. ``Holi is a harvest festival. The religious meaning behind the festival is the celebration of the elimination of evil. Holi is the celebration of the death of Holika, Prahlad's evil aunt. We light a bonfire at night signifying Holika's death,'' says Rajesh Agarwal.
``In North India the festivities go on for 15 to 30 days. But here we celebrate it just for a day.'' But why? "The police drive away the revellers. It is true that some miscreants in the guise of Holi revellers create trouble. But it is sad that the police fail to distinguish us from them.'' Rajesh Agarwal says, "Holi stands for friendship. It provides an opportunity for enemies to bury the hatchet. Boys and girls celebrate Holi without any inhibition; but sadly, some boys try to take advantage of the liberty the festival provides.''
For some the call of Holi is so overpowering that they travel many a mile to celebrate it. Nitesh is one of them. From Uttar Pradesh, Nitesh is now studying in an engineering college in Bangalore. He's come down to his uncle's house in Chennai for the fiesta. He says Holi reiterates the message of brotherhood. M.K. Choudhary, from Haryana, who's into iron and steel business in Broadway, says that in Haryana and Punjab it's predominantly seen as a harvest festival. Holi for him is a time for ``bellyful'' of thandai (liquid sweet), ladoos and khaju ka halwa.
On Beach Road, Vimal saunters along the pavement along with his friends who seem to have vied with each other in presenting the most outlandish display of colours. To him and his friends the ``Holi'' holiday has meant, among other things, a day's cricket on the beach. Surprisingly, for someone his age, he knows a lot about the religious meaning of the festival. As far as festivals go, there are two groups. One group celebrates, and the other caters for their needs. Babu belongs to the latter. He has been selling Holi powder in Sowcarpet for twenty years now. ``Business is not as brisk as it once was,'' says Babu. ``That's because many more are now selling the powder.'' Babu gives a bit of information about the commerce of Holi. ``Most of us get our powder from wholesalers on Kasi Chetty Street.'' It was a day which witnessed a unity of contrasts; for it was also Good Friday which evokes a sombre and less colourful mood as it marks the death by crucifixion of Jesus Christ. But the message of Good Friday and Holi are inextricably united. Both signify the conquering of sin and evil. In different ways. And Chennai stood doubly blessed.
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