Having more Fun every Year - Apra's Holi Celebration

I already told you that Holi has started here in Vrindavan. And as you can guess, Apra is in the middle of it! She loves it – and we love it even more!

She has been looking forward to the Holi celebration for weeks, if not months. In the past weeks, the excitement increased. She started watching videos of popular Holi songs, danced to them and told us all how she would put colour all over us in Holi time.

Now, finally, it is Holi! When I watch Apra, I have those incredible memories coming up and when asking my brothers, they feel the same. She wakes up in the morning and asks ‘Is today Holi?’ and when we said, last week, that it would be in three days, she would ask ‘Is today in three days?’ In the evening of the first Holi day, she looked at me in shock when a thought came into her mind: ‘Is Holi over now?’

I remember how it was when we children! In the morning, the first thing we did was to go out onto the road and play Holi! Our house was close to the main temple, where there was always a crowd, always colour and always someone on whom we could spray coloured water or on whom we could throw coloured powder. We only returned home to eat and otherwise spent the whole day on the road, out in the streets.

In the evening, when we went to bed, we held our water pistols in our hands, refusing to place them aside even for the night!

Since the very first day, when Holi started in Vrindavan, Apra has been playing with colours! She started with powder out on the road. The next day, we had a little colour fight here in the Ashram – and not only Apra and the boys but also Ramona, Yashendu and I got coloured. The day after, we decided to fill her water pistol with warm water for the first time – and it was even more fun! Yesterday, her uncle Purnendu had finally returned and could join the game as well as several of our guests. I am just looking forward to today’s colour madness and tomorrow’s climax!

I also remembered how sad I always was when Holi was over – but that we will face when it is time to! For now, we will just throw ourselves into the colours with our baby girl. Wait, no, not baby – she is now big enough to play so much herself! Last year, she enjoyed it, too, but she was still quite small. This year, she understands it much better – and every year, this joy will increase!