Holi to Whole - e

It all dates back to sometime a decade ago..

Every holiday used to matter.. every celebration was counted.. Smiles, happiness. frowns and sorrow.. etc were all real and lively unlike the virtual equivalents what prevail these days..

One amongst those important/remarkable days is the festival of colors, namely Holi.

Dated to sometime more than a decade and halg ago, the day of Holi used to be more frightening than a nightmare. It was more frightening than a moment of celebration. My dad's friends used to visit our home to meet up my dad and in their mean while fill them with colors and pinch me and make sure I cry for the day.. Colors were  something really irritating and unwanted that made have another bath for the day and with more amount of care.. Colors range from mild to strong pigments (the more lasting ones) lasting for a few moments to days, sometimes.

From there, after a couple of years i started learning that it is a kinda of fun to roam around with friends in groups and have fun filled rivals with other gang of friends and get them dipped into colors (added with welcomed additions like - oil, paste, egg etc). Got a guy who could be cornered? Bingo! Bang on him with all the strong pigments which could not leave all the stains from him for next few days and make sure he comes to school with some remains of the passed celebration, on his body :).

The closing ceremony would end more or less end up in a couple of pics taken if we were lukcy if on eamongst got a camera loaded. Yes, there were nothing more than a couple of pics - cos we were dealing with mere chemical films and normal cameras unlike the digital ones of today! Gee ... ! Smiles ..! Flash  - thats it.

But, what have we go today? Days moved from the real hands shakes and hugs, on the day of celebration to group sms and he like and now... a mere internet connected laptop/PC and a login to a social site like FB and write a line "Happy Holi to all my frnds" or the like. If that is a doing of one evolved human, there would be a few more like the same replying to the same "Thanks and wish you the same" (a clear example is : Me). If some one would want o draw more attention on the page, they may feel like adding past memories as pic or a eye catching pic from the internet.

To my surprise, i woke up this morning with a call from one of my friends wish on eve of the festival and then then I woke up see the apartment compound sparsely populated with people playing wiht the colors. Shocked i was to see how gentle and formal the crowd was, with the colors and meeting up people to color them, But as i walked in to the streets i was lucky to find some gang of people pulling a few more into their celebration. It jus reminded me of the good old days - decades ago!

Wondering where the modernization is leading us to - e-greetings, e-celebrations.. what next? an e-happening and e-people to live with?

Sigh! Happiness! in what ever way its felt should be welcomed?