Holi - Children Playing Tricks

I told you that Holi is the time of tricks. People have fun, wear different clothes than usually and especially children like to make jokes and make fools of people. I remember that when we were children we also did many naughty things in Holi time.

We made a hole into a tin box and attached a string to it. Then we used gum from a tree, put it into a piece of cloth and soaked it with water. When you rub this cloth with the gum on the string, it makes the noise of a barking dog. So we went out onto the street in a group of children and we held the tin box on someone’s leg from the backside so that they felt as if something touched them and made this noise of a dog. The people always jumped in surprise and shock and we ran away. Children also still do that and nobody minds this. They turn in surprise and realize that it is Holi.

There is another trick which we were doing often. With adhesive we glued a coin onto the street and sat down somewhere near it just like normal. It was always a group of people, young children but also adults who were then watching the following scene: Somebody comes by and sees the coin. He looks around if it is anybody’s coin and if someone watches that they pick up money from the street. Very slowly they approach the coin and when they are near they slowly bend down, thinking that nobody is watching. They try to lift the coin up from the floor but it cannot come off because of the glue. And at this moment the whole bunch of people appear and start laughing and clapping.

This fun can go on from morning to evening with one person after the other. I remember that time and we enjoyed it very much.