Ever since I left school, I had never celebrated Holi, the festival of colors. After such a long gap I had started disliking it. I had become much more of an introvert than I was in my school days and even the thought of my whole body covered with colors bothered me. But, thanks to my friends here, they had big plans of a grand Holi celebration and they were not in a mood to spare anyone. I tried to persuade them a lot but in vain. Finally, I decided to keep it simple. Since there was a cricket match between India and New Zealand on the Holi day, and it starts early in the morning, around 6:30, I would just go and sit in the tv room and watch the whole match. By the time the match ends, it would be lunch time, and hopefully by then all the celebrations would be over. There was also a mail from the hostel authorities that there should not any celebrations in the corridors, lifts, tv rooms, etc.
But then that was just my plan and like all other plans, it had to go wrong. It so happened that the previous night I got caught up in a novel and by the time I finished, it was already 4:30 am. "OK, fine, I will do a night out because if I sleep now I am not going to wake up before 10:00 am and I will surely be screwed. I have done so many of them in the past, whats the big deal", I thought. But you know its very difficult to keep oneself awake doing nothing. So sleep got the better of me. But luckily I got up at around 7:00 am because of my usual alarm. This was a little surprise for me since I had not heard my alarm for the last year or so though it kept ringing. So after a quick sequence of morning chores and of course breakfast, I came to the tv room. There were a few people watching the match. The Kiwis were batting. I was completely involved in the match, also feeling happy about my successful execution of the plan, and thinking that now I am safe from the Holi colors. I didn't have a clue that the mail from the hostel authorities was just to ignore.
At around 9:30, the first lightning struck. A pair of hands moved along my neck and on to my face from behind. I turned around. It was Pulkit with yellow colors in his hand and I realized I was a dead duck now. I tried to protest saying that we are not supposed to play Holi here, but it was of no use. They also have this unusual style of celebration, tearing off shirts of each other. "At least that will not happen in the tv room", I thought and stayed in the tv room. I didn't want to lose my Adidas t-shirt just for fun. More lightnings followed in the form of green, pink and purple colors. Some of them even tried to pull me out of the tv room, but I somehow managed to stay on.
So far the cricket match was medium paced, with the kiwis hitting a few boundaries here and there. They finally managed a decent score. There was some rain during the end of their innings which resulted in the target for India look more interesting that it actually was. At around 10:45, the Indian innings started. And then, lightning struck again, this time from Sehwag's bat, here there, everywhere. There were intermittent rains (the real rains) too, but the fours and sixes kept coming from Sehwag's bat. "Thunder storm at Seddon Park", I thought. Sehwag reached his hundred in mere 60 deliveries. So it became clear that India will win the match easily and it was around 1:00 pm. So time to have a bath and rush for the gala lunch in mess. Thinking that by this time all the celebrations would be over, I turned around. To my amazement they were all there, Nikhilesh, Abhishek, Nilesh, Pulkit etc. They were also watching the match. "Are they really watching the match or just waiting to pounce on me", I thought. Anyways I had no choice now since I could not miss my lunch. I slowly got up and moved towards my room, ready to run any time in case they attacked. But they didn't.
The lunch was good, in fact, very good compared to the usual stuff they give in the mess. After the lunch, I went back to the tv room to check the score. By that time India had already won the match, and handsomely too. So I came back to my room and had a short nap.
Well, that was my HOLIday. But then it would come again next year. There would be new people, new place and I have to think of a new plan ;).
