Roopa Shree is a Special Correspondent for usindiamonitor

In the small South Indian town where I grew up, the festival of Holi wasn’t exactly a big deal.  That’s not to say that Udupi, Karnataka wasn’t festive. We knew how to put on a great show.  The town had a world famous Krishna Temple, amongst many other temples, and Lord Krishna’s birthday was celebrated in a grand manner and on a far more epic scale than Holi was.

Holi was still recognized in a relatively small way. We used to see groups of 10 to 15 village farmers all dressed up in white with turbans, drums and other musical instruments singing village songs in their local dialect, going door to door to collect tips. As a tradition they used to lift up and carry the youngest ones in each household and dance. But there was no splashing of colored powders in our home town…