The Red Shift

Physics: The lenghtening of the waves as the observer and the source move apart. See 'Doppler Effect' for details.

In the Indian Context, however, it defines the time of late March, the advent of Summer, when every portion of exposed skin gets a redder hue, though not always due to the blood circulating in the arteries. We do have other phenomenon such as The Green Shirt (not marked by jealosy) and other uncommon colors, but then as they say, its "uncommon".

I have always been very excited about Holi, even though we do not play too much with colors. Its only in the last few years that we have started buying those pukka colors, which once applied announce to the world all the fun you had for quite a few days. And I have never spent a Holi in Kharagpur, where humans turn into animals, welter in mud, waddle in pools on the ground, tear everyones' clothes, dissemble themselves in alien chromas -- in short do everything a civilized person is not supposed to do. I have seen some photographs of Professors playing Holi, and they too do not set a very high standard of civilized Holi.

However, my most memorable Holi was almost a decade back -- in Delhi -- when we had those balloon fights. Me and my cousin occupied a lower terrace, and it was difficult, but we did manage to prove our aim. It was almost 4-5 days of hard work everday, we used to sit around filling balloons with water, collect them in hundreds and proceed to the battlefront.

Needless to say the ones inside the fortress used to be ready with their own lot as well. They had the added advantage of height which allowed them to simply pour water on us. In return, we armed ourselves with shart shooting water pipes, whose force of water could unbalance quite a few.

We had major fun those times.

When I think of those days, or even now, when I paint everyone at home red and blue [I am not spared either]. And to tell the truth, I have really come to like festivals, esp. Holi. The primary reason being, I am at home. I sleep well, eat well, and do nothing else. Life's good !

On a more sombre note, I really like Indian festivals. Each of them has their own story, how they came to be celebrated, what they signify, and almost all of them bring the family together. Apart from the usualy mythological reasons, they also have exptremely demotic and germane causes. For instance, Holi marks the beginning of summer, the spring cleaning, a new season of crops.

And the icing on the cake is that after playing with all the colors, you bathe for a really long time! I, personally, have not been cleaner in months, even though the red shift on my face would not reflect that fact.