Anecdote #2

It was the day of the festival of colours better known as 'Holi.' I had plans with a friend cum neighbour. I was expected at 10:00 AM but I turned up a little late. In my defence it was a little early. The morning started with a hearty breakfast of aloo paranthas. I reached Dadi's place and enjoyed some time with them. It was 10:30 and I thought I should get going but her entire family was there. I was a bit reluctant and found solace in promising myself to wait for just another five minutes. This went on till eleven 'o' clock.
When we reach adolescence we often feel that our horizons have expanded. It is at this age we feel a new sense of freedom. At the same moment the child in us is also quite persistent. We realise this when we feel shy or when we have strong opinions about certain issues but know that if we voice them our morality would be questioned by the society.
At that moment I was feeling under confident and embarrassed as I looked quite comical with oil rubbed in every possible corner of my body by my beloved mother. Another reason was that I have always been a shy person and facing other people has always made me uncomfortable. After giving myself a pep talk I propped myself up and headed over to her house. There were a few pleasantries and of course the grand photo session for which my father rushed out, clicked away and  circulated the pictures to every possible person in the family.
We headed over to the rain dance where all the uncles and aunties were boisterously showing their moves. I tried to take some inspiration from them but sadly I wasn't as good. They were in another league with their gyrations. Later, my friend had plans of meeting up with her classmates at her friend's place and convinced  me to come over. We needed to be dropped over but quite ironically her parents were not be found. Still drenched , thanks to the rain dance we went all over the colony looking for them. There we were, my friend, perturbed and annoyed with her parents , her brother and cousin who were not robbed of the holi spirit, my friend's friend(this description is slightly longer than I expected) who was fervently participating in the search and there I was covering myself with a towel and finding this search quite amusing. I had a lot of fun watching all kinds of people hanging around. Everybody had their own way of celebrating, some were dancing,  others were chatting and just generally keeping it cool. I guess these mixed energies seeped into me and in no time I was in high spirits. We couldn't find my friend's parents but nonetheless I enjoyed myself immensely. After all happiness cannot be measured, it is only these moments that we remember for a lifetime.