With five Dulhas, this was one crazy Holi Baraat

Amidst plumes of colour flying around with resounding beats of the desi dhol blaring away, the five dulhas made a swashbuckling entry on horses for the annual Holi Baraat procession on Saturday evening. “This annual procession that has been carried out for 22 years now, kicks off the holi celebrations in the Begum Bazaar every year,” shares Avinash Devda, a member of the organising committee adding, “Straying away from tradition this year, the procession had five grooms instead of one.The grooms represent five different communities — Marwari, Yadav, Marathi, Telugu and Brahmin. The whole point is to bring everyone together from every community. It’s a festival of happiness and nobody should feel sorrowful or enmity towards each other. So it’s a show of unity and that’s why we have many different communities participating in the festivities.”
Organised by Begum Bazaar Holi Utsav Samithi, the procession started at the Begum Bazaar Post Office and went through Kirana Market, Barthan Bazaar, Feelkhana before returning to Begum Bazaar Chatthri junction after three hours. The usually busy shopkeepers, left their shops and joined in the revellery smearing colour on each other. The procession covers almost 1.5 kilometres and had about 500 people participating in it this time.
What sets this procession apart is the use of eco-friendly colours. Herbal colours extracted from keshu flowers, khus fibres and gulal (from corn flour) were used to smear shopkeepers along the route of the procession.