Holi @K

It seemed like yet another uneventful day at the IIM. What with it being declared a working day, our spirits weren't exactly soaring. But then the mail from SPICMACAY arrived. "Holi @ 3pm. Venue:E-landing." Right....so there would be a celebration of Holi. What a respite!

Some of us eager beavers arrived before time, something very much against convention at least for classesJ. The colors were lying there tempting us. So we decided to take up the valiant job of pulling people out of the hostels and into the arena. One by one all our mates were dragged out of their rooms and sprinkled, rubbed and brushed (teeth) with colors. The festivities had caught on by the time we came back to E-Landing from the hostels.

A huge open tank was ready with colored water, and one by one each of us was going to get a customary 'Catapult' treatment. At least that's my word for it. We would be swung into the air by four strong mates holding each limb, and then swayed to gain enough momentum to propel us into the tank. And boy what a mess it was in the tank. At any given time there were at least six of our K-omrades ready to drown you (momentarily) into the water. No gender bias here. No one was going to be spared the 'treatment'.

With a little bhang to add more zing to the festivities, we were on at full blast. Vikash's quirky selection of songs, 'Chadgaya upar re…', 'Zara zara touch me, touch me…'(More about this one later) and the more conventional 'Rang barse,…' etc., pepped up the evening.

Things had reached quite a high by now, we went on a t-shirt tearing rampage (Well, unfortunately we had to show some gender bias hereJ). Well, the picture you see is the aftermath of the carnage. The torn t-shirts were being thrown at each other with great gusto (even managed to break the mess lampJ).

The best part of the event was when Ricky Singh did a very sensuous (and I don't mean in a manly way) dance to 'Zara Zara touch me..'. Man, he's got some moves. He got the girls all cheering and whistling at him. And also doing the money-throwing act you do for strippers in a club dance.

For me this was the best holi of my life, partly because where I come from, we do not celebrate holi this way. But I guess it is not so much 'how-we-celebrate' as it is 'With-whom-we-celebrate'. Come to think of it, that's true of most anything in life. It is the people around you who can make the dullest day into the most memorable one.