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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Holi Special News India Times (March 8, 2025 - March 14, 2025) March 14, 2025 14 A Gen Z View: My Holi In Full Color H oli has always been one of my favorite festi- vals. It’s a day filled with color, laughter, and a sense of togetherness that feels truly special. While Holi in India is known for grand scale celebrations with entire streets erupting in color, music, and festivity, my experience growing up in the United States has been different but just as meaningful. Here, Holi is not just a cultural tradition; it is a way to connect with my roots while also sharing the celebration with friends from different backgrounds. One of the best parts of Holi is the community festivals. Every year, my family and I attend Holi events hosted by local temples, cultural centers, or university organizations. The moment I step into my local temple in Queens, I feel different—music playing in the back- ground, people greeting each other with handfuls of brightly colored powder, and an overall sense of joy in the air. Everyone starts off in white clothing, but within minutes, those whites have all sorts of colors on them. The excitement of being surrounded by people laugh- ing, dancing, and celebrating together makes it one of the most anticipated days of the year. At home, we gather in the backyard, armed with packets of gulal, and start off carefully applying color to each other’s cheeks as a sign of respect and love. Of course, that doesn’t last long, and within minutes, it turns into a full-on color battle—running around, and making sure no one escapes without being completely covered. The simplicity of the moment, the laughter as we chase each other around, and the shared excitement is why I love this festival so much. Holi is incomplete without delicious sweets and snacks. My family makes gujiyas, a sweet pastry filled with coconut and nuts, and chaat, a spicy and tangy dish. There is also thandai, a traditional Holi drink in- fused with spices and milk. I remember sitting together after all the chaos, enjoying these homemade treats, and talking about past Holi memories. I have come to love sharing Holi with my non-Indian friends. Every year, I invite them to join in. At first, they are hesitant, unsure of what to expect. But the moment they throw their first handful of colors, they completely embrace the festival. They dance, eat, and immerse themselves in the tradition with so much enthusiasm that by the end of the day, they are asking when we can celebrate again. It is a beautiful experience, seeing my culture bring people together, breaking barriers, and creating moments of pure happiness. Holi is also a time to connect with my culture and By Kavya Bhatia One Thing To Do This Holi! T he festival of Holi is going to be here soon – once again. Like every year, everyone including news- papers, magazines, social media, temples and will be full of stories of Holi and the cultural tradi- tion. There will be repeated emphasis on how Holi is symbolic and how it means new beginnings and triumph of good over evil and how the colors represent acceptance of all. It seems, in the middle of this grill every year, the simple history of Holi is forgotten. That of Krishna and Radha and the Gops and the Gopis having a simple fun game. Everything connected to Krishna is symbolic, we all know. And we know his games with Gops and Gopis reflected the play of God and human beings. It has re- flected that for more than 5,000 years. To tell us that one never knows the greatness of the person one is playing with – in life, friendship, business, anything. This play is captured beautifully by Rabindranath Tagore in his 97th poem of the Gitanjali. When my play was with thee I never questioned who thou wert. I knew nor shyness nor fear, my life was boisterous. In the early morning thou wouldst call me frommy sleep like my own comrade and lead me running from glade to glade. On those days I never cared to know the meaning of songs thou sangest to me. Only my voice took up the tunes, and my heart danced in their cadence. Now, when the playtime is over, what is this sudden sight that is come upon me? The world with eyes bent upon thy feet stands in awe with all its silent stars. Perhaps that is how Krishna’s play is! Making friends of human beings and having fun with them, through the day, through life, till the end of the play here on earth when one suddenly realizes his presence as God among men, till one realizes that one better put one’s act together before the play is over and it is time to go. No matter at what stage of life one is, no matter at what point, when the play is over! So what do all these festivals do for one? They do bring a lot of preaching, for sure. But that preaching may not really touch one’s hearts or one’s brains. One may be excited for a day and then everything can go back to the way it was. Why does one let that happen? Aren’t festi- vals kind of wake up calls? To really bring at least one of the much hammered messages into our lives? And so, if Diwali is supposed to bring us into the light of knowledge from ignorance, Holi is also supposed to shake us up about camaraderie. Traditionally, before people forgot, Holi was also the time to end feuds of all kinds. Feuds with family members, neighbors, friends, work colleagues, and others. That sounds like a message one can surely adopt permanently in one’s life. Ending feud can be external and internal. One’s feud has to end both outwardly and in one’s mind. If one really wants to adopt this mental wellness message of Holi, one has to not just end a feud or bad feeling or anger or envy superficially and have so- cially cordial relations. It has to end in one’s heart. The color and other paraphernalia of Holi are like the superficial cordiality. The feeling that will last will become the internal ending of all things bad. So perhaps it does not matter if one doesn’t go to the temple. It doesn’t matter if one doesn’t participate in going around the Holi fire offering it sweets and millet pops. It doesn’t matter if one doesn’t get together with community and play colors. After all, the play will end. That is when the real participation in Life will begin. That is when one has to root out, one by one, and slowly if not quickly, any nega- tive feeling or hate out of one’s heart and mind. It is not generally an easy process. One needs to be at it continu- ously and still one may not succeed. One may even give up. Which is why Holi comes every year to remind one that the process of weeding has to continue. And just like one has to shower and clean up one’s en- tire body of the colors, one has to clean every tiny speck of that bad feeling. And then look and see how beautiful Krishna made the world! By Archana Adalja Radha playing Holi with her friends. Victoria Albert Museum. This work is in the public domain in India because its term of copyright has expired. The Indian Copyright Act applies in India to works first published in India. According to the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, as amended up to Act No. 27 of 2012 (Chapter V, Section 25). A watercolor painting of Krishna; from 20th century Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 4.0 International license. PHOTOS:COURTESY KAVYA BHATIA Flower design to depict the colors of Holi. - Continued On Page 16