While this festival of colours (or is it a riot of colours?) has the entire Delhi NCR in its grip, there are quite a few who refuses to be sucked into the quagmire and rather prefer to be a) left alone; b) locked up in the bathroom; or c) out of town to a place which has no traces of holi (Goa or maybe Kohima in the north-east).
So what is it that makes them so abhor this festival celebrated with such gay abandon everywhere and by everyone? You may have your answers below:
Nupur Srivastava
Take, for example, Nupur Srivastava, a resident of Sector 14, Gurgaon. This is what she has to say and I quote: “I haven't played holi since I was 12 years old. I hate the whole idea of forcing colours on one another, throwing balloons on people, rubbing the faces forcefully with ugly colours out of fun, tearing each others clothes! I just don't like it at all. Period.”
You may think that she is a case of rarest of the rare, but make no mistake, like George Bush would say, she is among the rising breed who avoids Holi like the plague.
Nidhi Joshi
You just have to ask Nidhi Joshi from Dwarka. And this is what she says: “First I am not sure of the colours. Though most respectable sellers advertise these colours as herbal or organic, I have my doubts. My skin being very sensitive, I do not want to take the risk. Ideally, I could do with playing holi with flowers and coloured water made of flowers. But then where are those places? Sure I love the holi sweets such as gajar kanji and gujiya, but these would only tempt me only if the venue promises to celebrate flower holi.”
Jayati Sarkar
Then you have the likes of fashion photographer Jayati Sarkar, a resident of Uppal’s Orchid in Gurgaon. “It’s simply messy,” she says, “I would rather photograph people colouring each other up than myself joining in.”
Debraj Mookerjee
If you are thinking it’s only the women residents of NCR who skip the festival of colours, make no mistake (that phrase again!), there are a sizeable chunk of men too who would rather avoid it. And that chunk includes Debraj Mookerjee, a resident of Sector 23, Gurgaon. This professor of English from Ramjas college, a regular on TV debates following the Ramjas debacle, finds the festival “messy and intrusive.” The chemicals used in the colours, he says, are scary and it needs too much of an effort to clean up. “It can get invasive. Even as a third person I don’t like watching. It isn’t pleasant,” he feels.
SSameer Prasad
You also have one of the more famous residents of Noida SSameer Prasad, a Sufi singer. “Spare me please,’ he pleads, “I would rather be in my studio doing my music.”
Well then, can we give them some space please this Holi?
