Poems And Festival Of Colours By Pankhuri Sinha

Celebrating the festival of colours

Kamdev, burst into flames so many times
By the third eye of Shiva, god in meditation
Has risen up again, adorning his bows and arrows with flowers
Of myriad colours, for it’s the festival of colours!
And this cupid, the deity of love created by the sages
Who wrote the Vedas has the blessings of gods infinite
To rise again from his ashes like phoenix!
But no, there isn’t necessarily romance
In the mutual throwing of colours
In that ancient rhythmical celebration
Of harvest, with dance like, prance like movements!
The notes of the legendary flute of Krishna, come floating
The baby god with naughty moods, and countless women friends
Whose love for him was other worldly, divine
Played grandiose holi with the village
And the woman he loved, Radha, who is found with him
In temples today, instead of wife Rukmini
With the Gopis, the Gopikas, the Brijbalas
So say the folksongs, women sing till date
Making festival food, banana pancakes of a special kind
Dishes with curd, tamarind, jackfruit
While kids grown and growing pretend being gods and goddess
Playing that ancient divine Krishna holi
Some put up a show of fetching the creamy curd
Hung high above in a claypot to be broken ceremoniously
To celebrate the birth of this god, often charged with butter theft
And so frolick and play dominates the holi mood
To loudly announce the full fledged arrival of spring
With loving colouring of friends and family
Mingling with people new and old
Visitng, greeting, exchanging dishes
Savouring same delicacies different in each household
In that traditional rejoicing of individual culinary skills
Drenched in emotions, colours wet in the morning
Dry in the evening, on the cheeks of friends
And feets of elders, its all about bond renewals
Keeping the game of life and more, free, open
Are you and you and yes even you
Are you playing it fair?