Holi हो ली

Played Holi after 15 years... last time, I played was during class 10th boards in 1997. Those were the days when we started preparing at least a week in advance - colors, balloons, equipments, routes to cover, and plans of painting the town in every color. And then, on the Holi day, the day used to begin at six in the morning with colors and went on for hours, at least till the time Mom has called several times for lunch. And in between, Chowk, Raja Bazar, and several other areas over few miles were easily covered on foot. Then, the cleaning and bathing used to take at least an hour, that too after a lot of preliminary cleaning with dry clothes and 'ubtan', a paste of gram-flour, curd, and turmeric.

Today, it started at 11 and ended before 12.30, with only dry colors in between. Bathing took 20 minutes without much efforts. There wasn't anyone to call off playing and despite that, I felt like ending up it sooner than later.

Everyone grows and grows up with time but some grow older much before their time. Here is one more Peter Pan, who grew up too fast, too soon, too much. This reminds me of a free verse - nazm:

एक छोटा-सा लड़का था मैं जिन दिनों
एक मेले में पहुँचा हुमकता हुआ
जी मचलता था एक-एक शै पर मगर
जेब खाली थी कुछ मोल ले न सका
लौट आया लिए हसरतें सैकड़ों
एक छोटा-सा लड़का था मैं जिन दिनों

खै़र महरूमियों के वो दिन तो गए
आज मेला लगा है इसी शान से
आज चाहूँ तो इक-इक दुकां मोल लूँ
आज चाहूं तो सारा जहां मोल लूँ
नारसाई का जी में है धड़का कहाँ ?
पर वो छोटा-सा अल्हड़-सा लड़का कहाँ ?

- इब्न-ए-इंशा