In 2007, I moved from Kolkata in West Bengal, India and made Sydney my permanent home. For 14 years, I missed celebrating Holi – my all-time favourite Hindu festival.
Celebrating Holi for the first time with my children in 2022 was a bittersweet and very nostalgic experience. After more than a decade of life in Australia, I have slowly made friends who feel like family. Finding comfort and pride in being a practising Hindu in my adopted home has been a long journey. Even though I have really missed this colourful celebration for years, it took a while for the stars to align and I could finally introduce my children to the magic of Holi.
My very first childhood memory of Holi dates back to when I was six years old. I was hiding under the bed with my three-year-old sister, clutching her hand tightly when I heard our parents returning home. Their faces had been painted blue and black after a day’s festivities and they began pretending to be monsters who wanted to eat us. I was terrified of Holi and wanted the day to be over quickly. I spent a couple of hours under the bed, wondering why adults behaved more like children during Holi and when I would get my parents back.
The author with her two sons. Source: Supplied
I lived in a Bengali neighbourhood in Kolkata during my early childhood. I distinctly remember sitting by my grandmother’s window, watching other children hide on terraces, waiting to throw handfuls of gulal and water balloons at passers-by. For the unsuspecting targets, there was the instant shock and recoil, followed by a momentary pause as they recovered from the jolt, wiped their eyes and looked up – then, my favourite part – smiling white teeth emerging from the strangers’ colour-bombed faces. “Happy Holi!” they’d say to the giggling children, as if it was a perfectly normal way to say hello to each other.
As I grew older, I, too, started joining the fun, playing with my friends in an enormous house with 30 other kids, forming teams and running around looking for water taps, Holi colour, buckets and any other vessels we could find to launch a colour attack, each one of us with our beloved pichkari – a water blaster made specially for the occasion. Pink, yellow, orange, red, blue, green and purple would be thrown at each other and rubbed onto faces. We would wear our whitest and oldest clothes to show off the vibrant gulal marks, turning everyone unrecognisable.
After hours of playing, the smell of biryani and just-fried kachoris and samosas would fill our nostrils and we’d finally pay attention to our grumbling tummies. There would be a dessert table lined with gulab jamuns, jalebis and other delicious Indian sweets, and the all-important thandai – my favourite drink that’s made with a nut paste blended with cardamon, saffron and sweet chilled milk. Thandai is the perfect thirst-quencher at Holi, and I would guzzle several glasses throughout the day to beat the pre-monsoon heat. If I close my eyes, I can still taste the cold milk dripping off my lips as I tried to drink it in one big gulp so I could go back for more.
One of the author’s sons, revelling in celebrating Holi. Source: Supplied
Fun for the whole family. Source: Supplied
After hours of playing, the smell of biryani and just-fried kachoris and samosas would fill our nostrils
These are some of the memories that came flooding back as I celebrated Holi with my seven and 10-year-old boys for the first time last year. As we played in Bicentennial Park at Sydney Olympic Park, my younger son ran towards me with a water balloon – his eyes wide with excitement, face streaked blue – and I felt like a time portal had been opened.
The clock stood still as I relished the cycle of life, the changes in my own family and how Holi in its essence had remained unchanged. Now, on the other side of the world and surrounded by a different kind of family, it is still a day of intoxicating colours and so much joy, laughter and play.
The colourful signs of a very happy day. Source: Supplied
I am so proud to see [my sons] excited to share their culture
This year, I plan to take my children to the , where there will be a live DJ, food stalls, dance performances, family activities and dhol drums, which my boys have enjoyed hearing ever since we went to see the Indian cricket team play in the T20 World Cup. My sons want to invite some of their school friends to join in the fun, and I am so proud to see them excited to share their culture.
I look forward to telling others about Holi. I will say it is a time for counting our blessings, giving thanks and sending forgiveness. A day when adults turn into children. A celebration of giddy, exuberant love.
