I'll start with a quick intro. Holi is this festival we celebrate out here, sometime during March. It is supposed to be a festival of colours, but over years things have changed. Instead of celebrating it with colours, we do it with water. Yes, it is the one festival where you could drench people with not-so-clean water and get away with it.
So, a few years back, when I was barely a teenager, I stayed at school during the Holi times. Our exams were not so far away, I was stressed, and as a boarding school student there was little means of recreation. So, I decided to play Holi that year, a decision that was not influenced by the fact that literally everyone else who had stayed back had decided to do the same.
I armed myself with water balloons and plastic sheets filled with water and placed a few of them in my pockets. Wearing my old slippers, which looked ready to tear off any second, I went off with my friends. After drenching all of them with water from a huge bucket (not my precious balloons) and they reciprocating in kindness, of course. Make no assumptions, war was about to start and we thought we were prepared.
The teachers in my school had -still have- this little system of controlled Holi celebration. They just assigned spots for different class groups and thought that students would follow the rule. Spoiler alert: We never did. Instead of going to our own field, we set off to the senior’s grounds. By that I mean, we tried to invade people who were roughly 2-4 years older than us. Bad mistake.
We were not even one minute into their grounds, when we were pelted with water balloons. Those did not even have clean water, it was rather disgusting. So, we bolted. We ran like a dementor was chasing us. We ran, after attempting to throw some back at them only to have another gazillion rounds back at us. Basically, we ran.
Remember the old slippers I mentioned earlier? Well, they betrayed me at the worst possible moment. I slipped and landed face-first in the very grounds where I used to fail at trying to play football. I fell and I got drenched again and I ran with my foot half on the shoe and half on ground. If you thought that was uncomfortable, then imagine me wearing only half-a-slipper in an asphalt road under the scorching son. I knew I was going to have blisters but I still ran instead of trying to be comfortable. But apparently not fast enough, as a teacher’s kid was still able to hit me with a water gun.
So, we ran, but that was not enough. During Holi, anyone who was outside was fair game. You could drench them with almost anything and shout 'It's Holi'. A phrase that is supposed to remind people that since it's Holi they couldn't beat the perpetrator to oblivion. Usually, it just makes everyone angry. Anyone not playing just stayed indoors so we had to find a place to hide fast, somewhere we could be safe.
There was teachers' quarters nearby where we had arrived after our run. Since a handful of teachers lived there and there was a staircase completely hidden from the other side, I suggested we go there. Everyone agreed and I sprinted eager to make my blasted slipper less uncomfortable and ease the burn on my foot.
In my hurry, I didn't notice a small group of boys watching our every move and neither did anyone else. They were though, or rather they must've been.
We sat down comfortably in the stairs, completely drenched and tired. As it always did at that place, my eyes remained fixed at the Buddha statue that was a permanent fixture of that place for many years. It was a truly beautiful peace of art and for some reason sacks full of sawdust were also always beside the statue.
We were pretty shocked when we were ambushed. It is more like a reaction of AAAAHHHHH and numerous Splat! followed with more screams. More dirty water which probably was from sewers pelted us and more and more... They had plenty ammo and we had nothing...
I panicked and just threw the first thing that came in contact with my hands. You can probably guess what I threw. Yup, the sawdust. I threw the sawdust, hopefully right into their eyes all the while yelling the most vulgar obscenities I could think of. I started it and the other girls followed my lead. Soon enough, we were fighting back with sawdust.
Here the quote 'Don't bring a knife to a gunfight' comes to mind. Let me just imagine what would have happened if I hadn't thrown the sawdust. They would've thrown the balloons at us, they would've finished their supply and they would've left. But if bringing a huge knife means I would have any chance of winning the gunfight, then I would do it. So, I did. That is actually what I would like to believe. Honestly, I just panicked.
But we did not win. Why would the enemy hesitate to use the same sawdust too? We outnumbered the boys five to three, but in the end they still managed to win. Now, as if water from god knows where that probably had different types of bacteria and microbes wasn't enough, we had to have wood particles stuck to our body. What a Great day!!!
The day doesn't end there. No, it doesn't. We went back to our dorms, looking worse than shit and encountering wonderful things on the way. Seriously though, we looked worse than those people who were actually dipped into the drains by the senpais...
So, I went back dreaming about having a nice hot shower but had to come back to reality with someone hogging the bathroom. So, me and the others with same situation went over to where there was one public tap with great reluctance. The reason: The senior boys' hostels was on the way. But the disgusting hair that all of us sported was a top priority so we went.
Those senpais were waiting for us. Well, not exactly for us, more like for anyone who would come that way so they could finish their supply of water balloons filled with coloured water. Honestly, they felt worse than the ones with plentiful of bacteria. We took it all without even attempting a single act of revenge. Well, without shouting words that would make a sailor blush anyway. That's not revenge.
We managed to be smarter on the way back and I actually stayed dry and less cranky for the rest of the day. That was my first Holi spent with friends and despite everything it was really fun. After that I tried not to miss out on this kinda stuff. At least it provides me with good memories to look back upon and smile.
But, later in the evening of that Holi, when I discovered the unused balloons still sitting innocently inside my pocket after the fun was all over I was majorly pissed off.
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