Shaurya enjoys his 'Holi' day!!!
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Well I know its a little late to be writing about Holi - the festival of colors and I do realize that I am not really posting as much as I resolved to at the beginning of the year but these have been testing times. My job has been keeping me real busy and if that was not enough I had to keep up with household chores, courtesy my 'Forever Late' domestic help.
Anyway, talking about Holi, I never had any aversions about playing with colors or getting myself wet on Holi but I was sceptical about it this year since I did not know how Shaurya would react to all the hullabaloo and the fervor that is normally associated with Holi. Now that he has started understanding and demanding things and attempts to communicate his likes and dislikes, I wanted him to enjoy the festival like we used to when we were kids.
Shaurya's dad is not very fond of either Holi or the 'Hangama' associated with the festival and I was also anxious to see how Shaurya takes to the colors and if he actually follows my heart or imbibes his dad on this trait.
Well, to my surprise and delight my little champ did play Holi with all the enthusiasm he could show. He liked being around colors and wanted more and more of them on him (unlike his dad). I had a feeling that he would not be totally reluctant to it but never thought that he would be so willing to play with colors and water.
Holi At School - A Day Before: Shaurya's play-school 'The Circle' had organized celebrations of ‘Holi’ for the children. The scheme of things included playing with flowers and getting a ‘tilak’ of color, but Shaurya somehow got hold of the ‘Thaali’ of colors and started putting the 'Gulaal' on himself. His teachers came forward to stop him, but he just had a big ‘NO’ to keep them away. He kept on putting more and more of the 'Gulaal' all over his head, face, 
arms and clothes and kept smiling and laughing all the way.
I had to literally drag him back to get him home to give him a shower. Now, I have already mentioned in an earlier post how Shaurya loves to be in water and enjoys his daily baths. So, playing 'Holi' in the school had an added advantage of getting that extra bath, not to mention all the fun he had while playing with colors.
The Oily 'Holi' Day: Well, on the day of ‘Holi’, we tried to stay indoors, as no one at home was willing to use colors (except me) and so we kept sitting in the balcony looking at the people in the street and the park overlooking the house, waiting for some one to come and play holi with us.
It was nice bright and sunny morning with gentle breeze and Shaurya was enjoying all the sunshine. And then something went through his mind and he got up and brought me his bottle of oil and started taking off his clothes, indicating that he wanted to get a massage. I was quite surprised at his behaviour, but gave him a nice massage and he kept moving his arms, back and legs in a manner, as if guiding me to do it properly. I took out his splash pool and let him have a nice time playing and lazing around in the water for a long time.
As I sat there watching him enjoy the sunshine and play with water, I realized that the true essence of life and happiness lies in the careless indulgence in little joys of life that we in the natural process of growing up abandon at some point in time.
I was mesmerized at the sheer joy reflected on Shaurya's face and for once longed to be a kid again. For the records, I captured the moment (the picture above) and saved it forever on my mind.
Happy Holi, Son.
