Brown No More

By Nimisha Mittal 5 April 2008 154 views No Comment

The Festival of Colors brightens up the UT Campus

23rd March, 2008

More than a few people slowed down their cars while driving around campus on Sunday, March 23rd , when they saw students with pink, purple and green faces crossing the streets. Many of them had yellow and orange streaks in their hair, and sported formerly white shirts that would give laundry detergent companies heart-attacks.

The slew of goblin look-alikes could be traced back to the South Mall, where the Hindu Students Council (HSC), a prominent student organization on campus, was hosting its annual Holi celebration. Holi is the Indian festival of colors, celebrated at the beginning of spring, in which people throw colored powder at each other, dance, get together, and indulge in good-natured merry-making.

Historically, Holi is supposed to signify the end of the rule of an evil king named Hiranyakashap. The mode of celebration varies in different parts of India, and most places have their own unique versions, which include throwing pails of colored water at friends and passers-by, mud, water balloons, and even rocks (although that is, thankfully, very rare).

More than 200 people showed up to the UT celebration, and most of them stayed on the mall, not tiring of the gulal (colored powder) and water balloons that were being handed out by the organizers. The crowd consisted of students who habitually celebrate Holi every year, and also those who were experiencing it for the first time. Catherine Hagar heard about Holi in her Victorian Literature class, while her friend Katie Leary got a facebook invitation. Ankita Maheshwari, an Aerospace Engineering Senior, made it a point to take a break from school work to attend her last Holi celebration at UT. “It’s always amazing,” she said, before hurriedly ducking to avoid an onslaught of color.

Samosas (triangular Indian snacks with a potato filling) and lemonade were served by HSC officers, who were valiantly sacrificing their part of joining in the festivities. At least four different activities, which included Kho*, an art contest, a three-legged race, and dodgeball, had also been organized, which everybody enthusiastically participated in. In between the games, they danced to the Hindi and Punjabi music that was playing, or attacked friends with renewed energy and gulal.

The theme for this year’s celebration, “Connecting Cultures Through Color”, worked rather well; people from all kinds of backgrounds showed up to partake in the fun. After a while, everybody looked the same - cultural differences, brown skin, blonde hair etc - melted away in a haze of pink and purple and green, and the only recognizable feature on any given face was a bigger than usual smile.

*Kho is a traditional Indian game of tag