Indore: Celebrating colours of life, relationships and emotions | FPJ

Indore: Colour is as important as air for human survival considering the mind a human being is born with. Celebrating colours of life, relationships and emotions, people from different walks of life played with colours, rubbing the magic of happiness on each other’s face.

With the grand feast of colours at Rajwada, most people travelled to party with their friends. Immigrants from other states were dazzled with the energy and fun with Ger. While men felt comfortable in walking through the colourful crowd at Rajwada, most women preferred cosy celebrations at home.

Finding a mid-way, families celebrated Rang Panchami with their friends and family after feeling the energy of Ger from a distance.

Colouring of childhood freedom

Celebrating his last Rang Panchami as a toddler, 3-year-old Shourya Singh Bhati danced and coloured everyone and everything he could find. Freedom to do anything has its own fervour. Talking about the day, Shourya said, “I love colours! I like playing around with them.”

Quality time with life lessons

While event professional Hirendra Singh Bisen is busy with his work on most days, he decided to spend some quality time with his son Eklavya on Rang Panchami. “Rang Panchami is a local holiday and I could find time away from all obligations for my family,” Bisen said. He explained that Eklavya is shy of water and colours.

“As a father, I helped him overcome his resistance and told him about the fun of colours,” Bisen added. He further talked about how his mother made colours from natural sources. “Red colour with rose flowers, orange colour with harshringhar flowers, light yellow colour with tesu flowers and white colour with chameli flowers. Sometimes, rarely though, my mother would add a pinch of finely ground silver to the colours to add a touch of glitter in them,” Bisen concluded.

Togetherness brings colours to life

Life is just a moment that is ‘now’. Understanding this, the three fitness freaks celebrated life with their friends and family. “Friends and family are the basic essence of us being alive and that is what we are celebrating with colours,” Dr Jaykaran Yadav said.

Organic colours, get together and fun

Lahoti family loves the fun and laughter that Rang Panchami brings to their life. They celebrate with food, fun and colours. Organising a small get-together at their home, they hosted a feast for the day.

“Holi happens to be my favourite festival as it brings family together with a lot of fun and laughter,” businessman Suresh Lahoti said. He added that colours are the best part of life and the festival. “At the same time I keep in mind the safety measures, so we use only organic colours and avoid wastage of water,” homemaker Seema Lahoti said.

Reviving energy with young blood

Talking about celebration in her college, Dr Shyamli Chowdhury said, “Life becomes colourful when one lives well, and my life is dedicated to my students.” She celebrated the day bringing them colours, gifts and food. “Overall, Rang Panchami is a day that makes me feel complete and I am grateful for having such wonderful people in my life,” she added.

Bring out the child in us

Rang Panchami brings people together closer to each other and also to the child in them. Discussing the importance of the festival, businessman Vikas Jain said, “I love the festival of colours, as it makes me feel like myself.”  He elaborated that everyone has a kid in them, which can easily come out on the colourful festival. Sharing her views about the festival, homemaker Komal Jain said, “I get to spend time with my family and rejuvenate from otherwise monotonous life.”

Youth means friends

Sharing his views about Rang Panchami, executive Suresh Sawle said, “People often feel that they cannot enjoy festivals and life as much in older age, which is because they distance from friends.” He explained that celebrations and youthfulness translate to friends. He celebrated the festival with his friends. “We ate, chatted, played with colours and slept together,” Sawle added.

Happiness of celebrating with friend

As kids grow up and experience festivals, their enthusiasm bumps up. Talking about her first Rang Panchami with her friend, student Yashvi Jain said, “I love colours and this time, I got to splash my friend with it.”

Stuck without food, petrol & water

While most citizens loved celebrating Rang Panchami with their friends and family, some of them had to face downside of this. As most people moved to the city centre, there were no shops, petrol pumps and no home delivery services were working, which troubled youngsters who depend on these basic services.

Sharing their problems with Free Press, most of these youngsters felt that a prior notification would have helped them prepare a little better. However, since most of them can’t cook they had to starve and survive on chocolates.

“I could not find a single petrol pump open and my bike ran out of fuel. I was stuck at home with no other option. I wish I had known this would be the case a day prior, as I have to refill my bike every day.”

Aakash Rathore, 19, Student

“I could not get food the entire day. No one was willing to provide home delivery and all the shops were closed. I cannot afford to go to five star hotels for lunch at student’s allowance.”

Gaurav Roy, Student

“I live in a hostel, so I could get food but no water. Everyone ran out of water because of overuse. I went out looking for packaged drinking water, but not a single shop was open. It feels like a fasting day.”

Harsh Maheshwari, Student