Painting the town red... and yellow and green and blue

With a modern "Pichkari"

Holi is upon us. The festival of colours is tomorrow, or today, or both. At a time when the winter gives in to spring and summer lurks around the corner, Holi brings the much-needed wardrobe change and spring cleaning. We have forever known Holi to be the festival of colours - when every street in every Indian city, town or village is coloured, when all-whites turn into all-but-whites, when people are proud of being unrecognisable. Holi has been known to bring out the best in us.

But it does show a lot more. Always having loved colour (even in the Desert), Holi does show that spring has been long awaited. Indians of Indian and French origin have always been more for the summer. We are summer people. Our colours are summer colours. They are more of brick-reds and yellow-ochres than blacks and greys. Winter for us is time for hibernation, time for everyone to grow bellies. But when the green comes back in the trees and the blue back in the waters, we start running about and jumping with joy.

Krishna playing Holi with Radha

Holi is also an important democratising day. This is a day when looks do not matter - because everyone looks like Disney characters. This is a day when dressing up does not matter - because it will be a pain to bring out the colours. This is a day when you forget your differences with your neighbour - because you cannot really play Holi without including everybody.

This is also a day when the child inside comes out - when getting drenched brings joy, when you thank your friend for ruining your clothes, when getting soaked feels good. For a long time the winter has kept us away from the element that we loved so much. For a long time the winter has played mind-games on us and made us shiver at the sight of water. But not anymore. Being and integral part of life, summer and monsoons are symbolised well in Holi.

So wherever you are, play some Holi. Find your colour. Lose yourself. Play with your kids. They'll love you. Play with your grandmother. She will bless you. Play with friends and family. They'll adore you for it. So wherever you are... go play.