Holi is the festival of colors in India and along with Diwali, it shares the top spot in the list of most popular Hindu festivals. The festival has its origins in Hindu mythology, but people from all faiths join in to celebrate Holi, or “play” Holi, as we say in India.
As one of the youngest among all cousins, I used to dread Holi, when I was about 6-7 years old. It was a scary day, when
suddenly, everybody literally changed colors. (See the pic on right and you’ll know what I mean!) But as I grew older, I developed love for this amazing festival and eagerly waited for the day every year. In addition to playing Holi with my family, I was a regular at Holi-celebrations at my engineering college in undergrad days and later, at my workplaces: CA and Adobe.
This year, it was only the second time that I was not with my family on a Holi and the first time that I was outside India and thus, I was saddened by the idea of missing the colors. But the MBA’10s (second-years) had different plans. They had a clear plan lined up for a special Holi-day covering the entire first half of the day.
The day started with a Cricket match at 9. Cricket and Holi! What’s the connection, you may ask? Frankly, even I can’t think of one, except perhaps that both of these bind Indians together. So, it was some MBA’10s pitched against MBA’11s, with some alumni from class of 2009 joining in and we had a wonderful game. After two gripping games lasting about three hours, we were finally ready for Holi-time. We had booked the picnic-area of our apartment for the celebration.
As soon as we reached the venue, the Holi-fever took over. With colors in the air, shouts of “Holi hai!” (“It’s Holi!!”) and people running after each other with colors in their hand, the scene wasn’t very different from what it used to be there back in India. Partners and kids (Brave ones, who, unlike me, were not scared of colors!) of some of the students too joined in action and suddenly, I wasn’t missing my family that much. Friends from China, Pakistan, Armenia, Latin America and the US too joined us and within moments, every face was smeared beyond recognition in shades of red, orange, purple, green and many more. And that’s the beauty of Holi! Once you are a part of it, the distinctions of nationality, caste and religion disappear and give way to the oneness 
of Holi. (Take a try at the snap on left, it will certainly take you more time than usual to correctly assign people to their nationalities!)
Once we were done with colors, it was time for yummy Indian food. And as we were gobbling it up, we had a surprise guest: Harriet, our Director of MBA program office. All international students share a special relationship with her, as she is usually the first Goizueta person that we get to meet after landing in the US and she goes an extra mile to ensure that we all get settled here comfortably. As such, it wasn’t actually surprising that some of us had sent down a special invitation to her and she did join us for lunch. It was great to have her among us, but sadly, we had run out of colors, by then.
This was certainly not the wildest Holi that I have played. Two (Yes, two!) Holis played in the final year of engineering college win hands down on that front. But still, I’ll count this as one of the most memorable Holis ever. Enjoying a festival in a new land, with other people joining in to share your joy: this certainly is a lovely feeling. Thank to MBA’10s for a wonderful day and we promise a bigger Holi, complete with Holi-special songs, next year.
Read the full article: Celebrating Holi in Atlanta!!