Romance and Holi

 An intense self reflection for the last twenty years has always given me an answer on - "Who am I?" 

Whenever the day and season of Holi arrives, I get the answer to my question and it is always - "I am a romantic to the core". 

A walk down through the memory lane of all celebrations of Holi in Kolkata and Delhi only shows me that during the week of Holi - "I am always expecting to see the unexpected and not yet achieving or getting it exactly. " 

This gap between the constant hope of expecting the unexpected inspite of not getting it ever but with a sustained beauty of still having the faith makes me a romantic. 

As a romantic, I become a captive audience of the cinema halls of 80s, 90s, where as a romantic I become a captive audience of my faith of the hope of unexpected.

 I am not like the distracted audience of today's cinema halls who sees Pushpa, Chhava, Animal on the screen, cheers, cries at violence but at the same time distractedly likes, puts a thumbs up on Facebook at the same time. The distracted audience is cheering and at the same time existing within whatsapp family groups while being in the cinema halls. 

In my entourage with my Holi memories of Kolkata, Delhi, I prefer to stay like the audience of 80s, 90s of the cinema hall in captivity. I stay happy with the moon having a hope of fore seeing the sun. I stay faithful to my hope of seeing or being able to see the Sun in the hope of being a captive audience of the moon. 

Today, in 2025, while being asked a simple question by my student at class - "Sir, How Do You Celebrate Holi?", I realised I have become a melancholic nationalist, patriot, individual who is a captive audience of a cinema show of 80s, 90s, 2000 memories of Holi in Kolkata and Delhi. Hence, I have turned out to be a Romeo who is struggling with a phone to become a distracted audience and wait for Juliet while holding to the captive memories of Holi and seasons of Holi. My student in the class and her simple question posed to me in the class today made me realise this and I am thankful for that!