Posts Tagged ‘Ethics’
Bura Na Mano Holi Hai
I was headed out of my office to the car park and was discussing something intently with my colleague when suddenly we hear a PHAT!! And another PHAT!!! And realized a couple of water balloons had been aimed by the kid next door. My colleague’s light grey trousers were splattered with coloured water. The kid immediately ran inside his house. We went and rang the door bell. Noone opened the door but his father came to the balcony and asked us what happened. So we told him that his son was throwing water balloons and it had narrowly missed us. And all he had to say was “Bura na mano holi hai. Yeh to hota hi hai. bachche to khelenge hi.” (Don’t get upset, its holi. All this happens. Kids will play). I asked him if I could slap him and get away with “Bura na mano holi hai”. He had nothing to say for that. I asked him what if his son threw a balloon on someone who is driving a car or riding a two-wheeler and caused an accident. His son isin’t a little kid anymore but is old enough to now understand this. We had to leave then because we were getting late and my friend would have to now buy a new trouser as well as she couldn’t go for a meeting in her colour splattered trousers. And we promised to send him the bill.
I have also played holi as a kid and I still play. But it is only in Delhi have I seen that people throw balloons randomly at strangers and passers-by. I fail to understand what is the fun in this. I was a pretty naughty kid myself but had the sense not to throw it at random people. The one and only time I did something like this, it landed on my dad’s friend who was in his white naval uniform. I was lucky it only had water in it and not coloured water. My parents however, were anything but amused. I have seen kids here throw it on the delivery boys on their 2 wheelers or at drivers (including a few on a bus driver who was driving at that time) which can cause a serious accident. Don’t their parents ever think of that?
I don’t mean to be the Grinch who stole Holi but I don’t understand why the playing cannot be restricted to friends and families and not innocent passers by. But I still don’t think that Holi gives anyone the license to misbeahve.
Read Chandu’s Holi trauma tale here.
