It was a mesmerising experience shooting the holi in this region of India called Braj. Here, Holi is a spiritual festival for the people and its a part of their religion. There are stories about Krishna spraying colors on Radha and other Gopikas and smearing their faces with ‘Gulaal’ (powdered color). Krishna was always jealous of Radha’s fair complexion, he teasingly colored Radha’s face with color. In a mischievous mood, Radha also ran after him badly annoyed and shouting, trying to color krishna with powder. It is said that this festival of Holi originated from there and the tradition of applying color is religiously followed till date.
People of Mathura and Vrindavan associate Holi with the divine love of Krishna and Radha. In this region different temples of Lord Krishna celebrate Holi on different days. During the main ceremony the environment is filled with excitement, with people passionately chanting the name of the Lord Krishna and Radha. People sit in a group and sing songs of Lord Krishna and Radha, and people around them throw colors and water on them from all over the place. They had bags of colored powder (upto 5kg each) and time and again they emptied them (by giving a swirl) in one go at the people who were sitting and singing folk songs. That is why there is so much color in the pictures. The color of the scene used to change with the bag of color. The songs they were singing were so beautiful, the whole atmosphere was so enchanting that I almost forget that I’m not a part of this culture and I’m here for the first time or better yet, I’m here to shoot. It was a wildly entertaining ride, certainly not for everyone, but an exhilarating experience nonetheless.
Thanks
Poras Chaudhary