Oh doesn't everyone hate to be a party-pooper. You never wnat to be the loser in the corner, who doesn't know how to have a good time. Me, I have an unearthly fear of being that loser in the corner, having pooped many parties over the years. So I would, more likely than not, try to oblige.

And yet.

And yet, I don't get these huge festivals. Like Holi. It's so not holy. (or is it?!) It's so not cool, according to me, but of course I'm missing the point - it is cool maybe if you're surrounded by family, especially kids, and then get the day off. That's always cool.

But no, I find it intrusive. Loud and obnoxious and always SUCH an inconvenience not to be able to walk out your house, for fear of being pelted.

When I used to stay in the godforsaken bylanes of mukherjee nagar on campus (well not enough on campus to be with it, just across the border into local-dom) we would routinely get pelted two weeks before holi. Water balloons, sometimes colour, with EGGS even, DISgusting. And I'm not even talking on the day of holi, when you'd be wiser off indoors or with friends (so you could do the pelting, of course)

And the letches, oh my god, I can't even begin to express my angst. You think I'm cribbing for no reason, of course, but just try being a chick, travelling on a rick back to your house in any of these places - mukherjee nagar, indra vihar, outram lines, even closer to campus. And walk to the market on your own around holi? Well, godspeed, coz you ain't gonna make it back in one piece.

Of course you have to put up with strategically aimed missiles, (and they hurt if people are throwing them from cars and the like) and if you're lucky, then someone gropes you as well as they whiz past on their bike or scooter...

I don't know anyone who hasn't gone through something like this (however innocuous it sounds) who wouldn't recognise the heart pumping, the adrenaline rush, the raw taste of fear, and even more than that...the frustration. You're asking for it, how? Even if you were wearing a potato sack, you'd get harassed. Of course this is something that goes beyond Holi, but I have a profound distrust of a festival that routinely flusters and unnerves even the usually tough-talking urban woman.

It's really some un-holi sh*t, if you ask me. But then again, I'm not that lame party pooper in the corner, so if you had a good time, rock on! I'll bury myself under a rock and just wait to whine about diwali ;)