To dilute Covid gloom, whet your appetite for tradition this Holi

Rang, bhang and large boisterous gatherings, these are the pop images we associate with Holi, the festival of colours, when the otherwise rigid Indian social structures are loosened for a bit of fun and frolic. This year, however, as public gatherings stand banned due to the rising Covid-19 cases in the city, you may not be able to necessarily get dunked in a haudi—or swimming pool—full of coloured water.But this doesn’t mean that your festivities have to be necessarily pheeka (colourless). Instead, it may be time to discover some of the lost traditions and foods associated with Holi.
Most people do not realise that Holi is not a one- or two-day festival. In fact, if you are reading this in the early hours, you are in the midst of Rang Pashi, the first day of Holi that began on Wednesday, celebrated by various communities on either ekadashi or dwadashi (the 11th or 12th day of the waxing moon, according to the lunar calendar). Over time, this tithi has been forgotten, but in traditional homes, this is the day when gujiyas and papdi (thin and fried besan discs, different from the maida papdi of chatwallas) were made and the ritual of rang chhidkayi on elder members of the family (who then offered token sums of money to youngsters as gifts) was practised.
Rang Pashi, thus, was a day for the family. The women of the household were gifted specially-made pink mulmul sarees with gota and kinari embellishment called dandia, which they wore on rang pasha and then played Holi in. In fact, while most people associate Holi boisterousness with Rang Barse, the famous Silsila song, if you take your eyes off the Amitabh-Rekha pair and pay close attention, you will notice Jaya Bachchan wearing a dandia. These beautiful sarees were made months in advance of the festival and were an important gift to daughters and daughters-in-law, but that craftsmanship is now lost.
Rang Pashi, literally to water in a nurturing way (the word pashi connotes the act of irrigation), may have inspired the Mughal name for Holi too: Aab-e-Pashi (aab meaning water). It was celebrated with the same spirit of joy by Mughal aristocracy from the time of Jehangir to Bahadur Shah Zafar, making the festival symbolic of the country’s syncretic spirit. A common food associated with the syncretic spirit of Holi is meethe chawal, coloured with turmeric.
Part of this culture was also poetry and music associated with Holi. However, while mushairas such as the famous Shankar-Shaad mushaira at Modern School Barakhamba Road, or Hasya Kavi sammelans typically held this time of the year were public affairs, more intimate family celebrations comprised singing of traditional “horis”, semi-classical or folk songs, typically with Krishna-Radha paying in Braj themes. Some of these horis go back a few hundred years and were written when Shahjahanabad was the cultural capital of India. This year, do rediscover these.
We know that colours were made of flowers like tesu or palash, but the flower, according to Ayurveda, has therapeutic cooling properties too. In fact, traditionally, in some parts of India people would tie them in their turbans or cloths tied to their heads to protect themselves from the hot summer wind. Around Holi, a cooling sherbet was made by some families by soaking the flowers in water and seasoned with fennel, lime, black salt, etc. The recipes can be found online.
But Old Delhi’s typical Holi time treat is kaanji-bade, fermented mustard seed water with moong dal badas soaked in it. While the black carrot kanji is a winter drink, kanji-bada fermented in earthen pots connote Holi and are a probiotic eat that you can make easily at home or even order from restaurants.
Then there is chaat whose season only began with Holi, since chaat masalas made of typically pungent spices like back pepper were thought to be therapeutic in spring. Some disappearing chaats of Delhi include fruit cups or kulle filled with chickpeas in a tangy lime dressing, garnished with slivers of ginger, and sans dahi-saunth. Then, there is the Delhi aloo tikki, stuffed with chana daal for better texture, cut into halves and served with saunth and coriander chutney. If you are more ambitious, you could make dahi gujiyas, crescent shaped dahi bada cousins, stuffed with chironjee and desiccated coconut, another dying art.
In our new celebrations, it may be time to go back to the old.