The many hues of Holi

Was it a low-key Holi this year? A lot of people would like us to believe so. The Benares blasts, board exams, and cold weather (though Holi morning itself was fairly bright and sunny) are being advanced as reasons for avoiding the traditional rang and bhang this year.

But after chatting with my many and many-hued friends as to who partied and who didn't (I myself thought it wisest to avoid the party circuit, prevent being dunked in pools, and focus on soaking up the, er, spirits "" of course, leaving the baby in the good hands of her Dadi). I am yet to make up my mind on how hot the social scene really was. As they say, the jury is still out.

Politically, of course, no one played. Both the Congressmen and BJPwallahs were united in their "Benares blasts" excuse, and it was left to poor Laloo to lend some colour to TV reports. Though, by all accounts, his Delhi celebrations weren't a patch on the 1, Anne Marg kapda-phar Holi, where cowdung would substitute colour.

In Delhi, another heavyweight Holi is usually hosted by mediapersons Rajeev Shukla and Anuradha Prasad. Last year, the party included a Cobra beer promotion. This year, both went missing "" amidst rumours on how the family was spending the day praying (for a RS nomination?).

Then, a young MP and his socialite wife usually go off to their constituency "" along with a host of Delhi society people "" for traditional celebrations. This year, there are contrary reports on whether or not this happened. While the lady herself rued, "Nooo, just the children played a bit", friends-in-the-know insist otherwise. But I'm not taking any sides.

I'm also not conjecturing on the many lavish parties ostensibly thrown in farmhouses, including one by Kapil Dev and Vandana Luthra (in support of an NGO, if you like) about which no one seems keen to talk "" perhaps in keeping with the dominant sentiment of the day, or, then again, because farmhouses are hardly ideal venues these days.

But what I would like to uphold as an example for the rest of the debauched bhang (and worse)-popping populace are two "cultural" Holis"" one at the India Habitat Centre, which attempted to reverse the boisterousness with a civilised phoolon wali Holi, played with flowers, along with the singing of horis, traditional songs.

And, of course, dancer Uma Sharma's do. If you were to count the most happening annual Holi parties in Delhi, Sharma's ranks right up there, the music, dancing and old-Delhi eats drawing to its fold all of the city's culturati "" from Vasant Sathe and Uma Vasudev down to Naresh Kapuria. The arty set is obviously disdainful (slightly envious?) of other models- and fash frat-populated, mud-slime mega bashes...

Media baron Vineet Jain's party, the biggest bash in Delhi, by the way, had a truck-shaped bar this year, a pool of colour and all the mandatory pretty people attired in their Holi best "" ghaghra cholis and Armani jeans, no old clothes please!

No mention of Holi can be complete without Bollywood. The Bachchan bash (it didn't happen this year either, or so we've been told) has traditionally been the one party to be seen at. And to see "" like anchor Ruby Bhatia once gushed, "...at one point I was showering right next to Mr Bachchan himself!" ""referring of course to the garden showers. But there are others not many talk about "" and no, we're not talking about the RK bash whose jalebi and samosas were famed.

Did you know that one of the best post-RK parties was held at Janki Kutir, the house of Shabana Azmi's parents? Even as I write this, a day after Holi, sundry revelers have not quite sobered up.

"It was sooo... funny", giggles Pooja Bedi. She means the Zoom party at Hotel Sun & Sand. "I wore a string bikini blouse and a white sari", she giggles. "In the first five minutes, it became yellow", she giggles, "then orange, then purple, then...", she giggles. Right.