It’s Holi today.
Look who’s visiting Baba Bear on a week’s off!!!
My devout Hindu Maa got Puran Polis, Katachi Aamti, and Sajuk Tup (from ‘pyuvar‘ Chitale buffalo milk).
Misbah, the practising Muslim, cleaned the home (staying up late last night and waking up ridiculously early this morning), decorated the table, and decided to break her roza for a day, wrapping gifts for everyone (I wanted to tell her that Hindus don’t gift stuff on Holi, but then I thought, what do I know? Maybe this is a new tradition, or perhaps really old; impossible to know with Hinduism).
Maryam, the Muslim teenager, convinced Kym, my atheist daughter, to don a white tee and go down to play with colours with her friends (one of whom is half British!), even when Kym isn’t particularly fond of this festival.
Alexa, the digital assistant, plays rather loud Holi songs (WTH is ‘Oui Amma’? Is that French or Hindi?) as laughter rings out, the kids run around screaming, and Maa decides to make ‘batatyaachi bhaji’ and ‘naralachi chatney’ at the last moment, to bring some savoury parts to this meal.
Ah, India.
I sit here. Watching. Happy. Wondering what I must have done right to deserve this. Truly the luckiest man alive.
P.S.: Completely unnecessary, but for those who’ll see not the joy and revelry, but something else like misogyny and patriarchy, perhaps I should clarify that I have been part of the preparation and have contributed equally in cleaning, laying the table, managing the kids, chaperoning them, clicking photos, moving furniture out of the way, washing dishes, doing the laundry, making the beds, and so on. Unfortunately, nuance and elaborate explanations kill the flow of the story that I wish to tell—that of a joyous morning. So, with all due respect, kindly fuck off.
Later additions:
Here are Baby and Baba Bears doing the mandatory pre-Holi push-ups! Why ‘mandatory’? Because, one, we are going to be pigging out on yummy (but not necessarily healthy) food through the day, and so we need to build an appetite and pre-burn some calories, and two, we have just learnt how to do one single full push-up and we want to show off. Fair?
The entire family, drenched in colours wishing Happy Holi to everyone!
That photo we have been taking before lights out every single time Kym is here. It’s become a tradition now.
