Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
Holi is a vibrant festival of colors in India. To celebrate Holi the best place in India or even in the world would be Vrindavan. To say more specifically it is Vrindavan and area surrounding Vrindavan known as Braj or Brajbhoomi. In the region Holi is celebrated for the whole week ahead of Holi. Every day Holi is celebrated in different form being as Fulon ki Holi (Holi of flowers), Lathmar Holi (Holi with sticks), Laddu Holi (Holi of sweets) and also Holi with colors.
In Holi of flowers holi is celebrated by throwing flowers over each other, for Holi with sticks men are beaten by women by sticks as a remembrance of how the Gopis used to beat Lord Krishna after he steals butter from their containers. In Holi of sweets people throw sweets over each other as a part of Holi. All this are specially celebrated in different regions of Braj which surrounds Vrindavan. The area of Braj includes Nandgram, Barsana, Gokul and some other places. This is the tradition of celebrating Holi in Vrindavan and Braj which itself is considered as the birth place of Shri Krishna and where his childhood was spent.
Knowing about it I had decided to see the Holi of Vrindavan in a two day tour in 2023 at the time of Holi. Though I visited Vrindavan and Mathura only at that time but the colors of the city during the time of Holi is all different and divine than any other part elsewhere. I travelled to Noida bus stand from New Delhi where I stayed and from there I took a bus towards Agra. The bus stops at a place on the highway from where we can take shared autos towards Mathura or Vrindavan which is adjacent to Mathura. It was around two hours ride from Noida to the bus stop at highway near Mathura.
So after taking an auto to Mathura we got down at a point which shares border with Vrindavan. From there I had to taken another auto towards my hotel in Vrindavan which took around ten more minutes to reach there. The hotel was near Banke Bihari temple of Vrindavan. I gone to the hotel and then came out after some time freshened up. In fact I had one more person with me. So that time around noon it was exactly the day of Holi, the people of Vrindavan were in full mode of celebration and not a single person can be seen there without having colors on their body.
I was going to Banke Bihari temple while in between only some people threw colors and my white shirt turned pink and green. In this way I had been going while after some time there was a narrow road which goes to the Banke Bihari temple. While entering this road it is so crowdy there is hardly any space by which I can turn left and right and colors had been thrown from all around. My shirt suddenly changed into a colorful shirt from white along with my face and arms. In between I had made some traditional symbol in my forehead by a little boy, the symbol resembles to that of Shri Krishna. In this way I reached to temple taken my chappal off in the stairs and gone inside. I prayed in front of god and came out while it was through some other route and my chappals was lost as I cant go to the place where I kept them. So from there I travelled all the way near to the hotel bare footed where I bought a sleeper for rest of the tour.
While on the way I saw a few cowshed with cows who too looked to be in devotion of Shri Krishna. Then I reached hotel have again freshened up, had food and in evening gone to visit Prem Mandir. Then it is done for the day. The next day I had plans for Mathura from where I was to go back to New Delhi by bus. First of all I gone towards Krishna Janmabhoomi which though I could not visit, tasted some peetha (sweets) there. After this I had gone to Dwarkadhish temple which was near Yamuna river. It was a bit filled with water in road due some rains in night. I can see that just from outside as it was closed due to pooja timings. Then I visited Kans fort which is in the banks of river Yamuna river though was very small and does not looked at all like it may have been a fort of Kans at any stage if it had been.
From there I take an auto followed by a bus to Govardhan mountains and had a round trip (parikrama) around it by an auto. This is all how Govardhan mountain is worshipped. In the end of the round trip there was a temple where I prayed and later gone back to take a bus to the bus stand in Mathura from where my bus is there for New Delhi. I waited for a while and after which I took the bus to New Delhi and reached back home. But this trip I truly remember for watching the vibrant colors of Holi in the place where Shri Krishna himself is said to had celebrated Holi during his time.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.