Vaibhav Krishna,
SSP, GB Nagar
The day of Holi is not a festival day for us as we are on duty. No cop is allowed to take leave on this day. We do feel bad about it but when we see people celebrating and having a safe and secure Holi we feel happy. We celebrate Holi after the festival is over — Police Holi — that we celebrate with staff. There too the families are not allowed. So I think it is the families who suffer the most. More so those of lower staff as we still have our homes, but they live in barracks and have no personal space.
Kajal Nalwa,
artist
Holi happens to be one of my favourite festivals. I love waking up on the morning of Holi, putting on crisp white clothes and meeting up with friends. The best part about this festival is that it brings people together just to have fun with colours. For me, Holi has remained the same over the year, except that earlier we used to any colour available in the market but now we only look for organic colours. The market is deluged with chemical colours which are harmful for the skin so one has to be really careful.
Sheetal Chauhan,
BDS student
If there is one festival which I and all my family and friends look forward to, it is Holi. We wait the entire year to enjoy the Festival of Colours. We, however, ensure that we use organic colours only as all others can harm the skin. We also visit the homes of our relatives and friends and have loads of fun, dancing to classical songs like Rang barse bheege chunarwali, Balam pichkari, Holi re Holi mastanon ki toli and many more. And what to say about the delicious gujiyas and other delicacies cooked by my mother.
Priya Kaul,
spiritual healer
We begin the celebrations with the prayers on the holika dahan night, when I pray for everyone who is associated with me. As a healer that’s my sacred duty. We don’t buy colours from market but collect all the dried flowers and play holi with them. We first offers flowers to all the idols and Angels that I have on my alter at home after which we pray to our higher self and Master guides that there should be lots of colour in our and in everyone’s life. Only after this do we venture out to play with frineds and neighbours.
Sandip Soparrkar,
dancer-choreographer
Holi is my favourite festival, more than Diwali or Christmas. I love colors, I think the artistic streaks in me comes out the most during Holi. If no one colours me I colour myself! I feel Holi is the true embodiment of oneness, not just oneness with people but even with our soul. The myriad colours reflect our emotions and them mixing together defines us. Celebrating Holi has changed a lot over the years. College days we played a bit messy Holi with paints and water but today it’s pure colours and flowers.