Pratham Books Wishes You a Happy Holi

Manisha Chaudhry sums up the mood for Holi (and made us all crave for gujhiyas) in her lovely mail:

I always loved Holi as a child. I grew up in north India and the weather in March would be perfect. There would be flowers and scented breeze after a long cold winter and summer scorchers were only a memory from last year. Huge numbers of people would arrive to meet and greet my parents/grandparents. The table would be laden with gujhiyas and namak paras. There would be a huge cauldron bubbling with tesu flowers being boiled and heavy brass pichkaris would appear alongside.

As a teenager, I would be unrecognizable in a band of cousins and friends who walked all over Simla playing Holi with sporting passers by.

Now, I watch my children filling water balloons with feverish intensity and we walk across to my mother’s house for a session of communal gujhiya making. She and I still sing Holis in raag kaafi so that we connect with past revelries…

As I grow older, I have realised that the only way to love and celebrate is to be extravagant witth your feelings…so, HAPPY HOLI! I hope you will hug all your friends and find new ones. and get your white kurtas splashed with the colours of happiness!