Holi is the Hindu festival that welcomes the spring and celebrates the new life and energy of the season. Holi is the most energetic Indian festival, filled with fun and good humor. It ushers India in Spring when seeds sprout, flowers bloom and the country rises from winter’s slumber. “Holi” comes from the word “Hola”, meaning to offer oblation or prayer to the Almighty as Thanksgiving for the good harvest.

Vedic Heritage, Inc. continued its tradition of making the Indian youth feel closer to their roots by encouraging Indian classical dance and music. And what better way to so than at the auspicious, gay and joyous festival of HOLI. The Annual Holi Festival at Vedic Heritage is gradually becoming a platform where the Indian youth here in the US can showcase their talent and thereby get a glimpse of the rich culture of India which is so familiar to their parents and grandparents. The cultural administrator Smt. Renu Jain did a fabulous job of leading this event even this year.

It was a great evening. We had a record crowd.Over 1000 people visited the temple, nearly 500 stayed back for the program and Prasad and nearly 100 stayed back past midnight for Holika Dahan and Gulal.The program illuminated the rich array of Indian music and dance The illustrious panel of judges included Shri Sridhar, Shri Hari Nott and Shri Suresh Benegal. It was the judges who had the toughest time, what with each one of the participants performing much better than the other one. The high caliber of these children is definitely worth a standing ovation. Also worth applauding are the parents and the teachers of these children who are making a sincere effort to keep these kids as close to their roots as they possibly can.

Tejas Tope won the first prize in the instrumental category. He was like a young Zakir Hussain moving his hands on the tabla like a maestro. Shunny Parikh was a close second, playing the violin with great finesse.

The vocalists mesmerized the audience with their soothing voices. In the Light Vocal category, Aniket Ghatnekar came first by singing “Sakhi Baje Pag” followed by Anjali Agarwalla in the second place who sang “Gale Bhujang”. The third position was shared between Neil Dave who sang “Govind Damodar Madhveti” and Nirali Shah who sang “Muda Karaat Modham”. Gauri Sadanand and Manasvi Varshney were also impressive. The competition under Vocal-Classical Category was pretty tough. Nitasha Gupta grabbed the first position. The audience was spell-bound when she sang Raag Todi. Even here judges had a real tough time. The second position was shared by Uma Chatterjee who sang “Raag Puriya” and Priyanka Tope who sang “Raag Puriya Kalyan”. Suchint Sethi came a close third by singing “Raag Bhairav”.

Besides Classical Music, India has a very rich tradition of dance be it Classical or Folk and both formed the categories in the Holi Program at Vedic Heritage.

Classical Dance is the one which is the expression of rhythmic movement primarily through use of the hands and feet often in specific poses.

Barkha Patel won the first position in this category by performing “Kathak”. Her dance depicted “life” and laid a

lot of stress on intricate footwork and expressions. Close second was Sonia Joshi who performed “Bharatnatyam” and her dance showed a wonderful amalgamation of Bhava (expressions), Raga (music), Tala (rhythm), and Natyam (dance). The group comprising Dimple Shah, Veena Viju, Radhika Vishwanathan, Taseen Ferdous, Shruti Ramachandra, Maalya Ramachandra, Reema Shah, Monica Kurup, Deepika Kurup, and Alexia Bhanot came third. They too performed Bharatnayam on the concept of Cosmic Energy and their prominent use of hand and eye movements conveyed their message beautifully.

Under Semi-Classical Dance category, the first prize was won by Hiral Patel, Yasha Maniar, Sonali Marfatia, Tanvi Aggarwal, and Charvi Soni who made afresh the memories of the motherland by dancing to the tunes of “Mera Des Rangilo”

Khyati Shah came second. She performed a Light Bharatnatyam dance. Again the judges had difficulty in choosing between the group of Purti Pareek, Tarang who danced to the popular “Jain Jiya Jale” and the group of Sophie , Emily ,Krupi ,Mahak ,Sabena ,Sunaina ,Upasna ,Aditi ,Priyanka Patel who danced to the tunes of another popular number “Rang Deeni”, so they ended up handing them both the third prize. The performances of Devika Gupta, Nakul Gupta who danced to “ Ganpati Bappa” and Victoria ,Rebecca ,Shilpa ,Shivani ,Priyanka Kapadia ,Ava ,Sonia, Elizabeth, Julia Subudhi, Neha Narvekar who performed “Man Mohini” also need a mention.

All these dances were like a collage of rhythmic lines, forms and shapes.

As the diversity in Indian culture and tradition is reflected in the variety of Indian folk dances too, this category was also included in this year’s program. The group of Shivani Seth, Trisha Maniar, Krupa Patel, Priya Shah, Bhakti Patel, Jahnvi Shah who performed the Folk dance from Gujarat not only won the first prize but also the hearts of the people present.

The group of Priyanka Shah, Vidhi, Durva Bhandari, Charmy Shah, Sayali Talati, and Akshita Verma performed Tippani dance. The vigorous swiftness and rhythmic cadence of footsteps and Tippani steppings help them bag the second prize. The third prize was won by Stuti Dixit, Kajal Parikh, Bijal Patel, Namrata, Krisha Thakker, Kanchi Rajput, Sejal, and Rupa Shah. They performed Panghat Dance.

The audience was spell-bound by all the performances. They had nothing but praise for the young artists who, in spite of being in this country for quite long, are trying their best to keep themselves rooted to their own values and traditions.

After the entertaining program, everyone performed Aarti at Sri Hanuman Mandir and Sri Shiv Shakti Mandir. That was followed by Holika Dahan-lighting of the sacred fire, performing parikrama and offering prayers. Holika Dahan ia an extremely popular tradition which is celebrated with great fervour and is symbolic of triumph of good over evil. Holi is associated with the Puranic story of Holika, the sister of demon-king Hiranyakashyap. The demon-king punished his son, Prahlad in a variety of ways to denounce Lord Narayana. He failed in all his attempts. Finally he asked his sister Holika to take Prahlad in her lap and enter the blazing fire. Holika was blessed with a boon that no fire could burn her. But the opposite happened. Prahlad survived and Holika was charred to death. It is because of this event, Holika(a bonfire) is burnt every year on Holi. Thus “Holi”is celebrated to commemorate the victory of virtue over evil.

What better way to celebrate the triumph of good over evil than to fill the the whole atmosphere with colors.Holi is also called “The Festival of Colors”. Legend goes that Lord Krishna was jealous of his soul mate Radha’s fair complexion since he himself was very dark. Young Krishna complained to his mother Yashoda who, in order to placte the child asked Krishna to apply color on Radha face. Playful and mischievous Krishna appreciated the idea and applied color on Radha’s face. Henceforth applying colors gained popularity and became part of Holi traditions. The tradition of applying colors on Holi is extremely popular especially amongst children. This moment that the children eagerly wait for came after Holika Dahan.

There was gulal in the bright shades of pink and red. Everyone sprinkled gulal on each other and no one was in his original “texture” after some time. Everyone was enjoying the fun and play of bright colors and nobody seemed to mind this mischief as the rule of the day is”Bura na mano Holi hai”.

The famous Thandai made by Annapurna Didi using the traditional receipe, was served to all the devotees.

It is rightfully said that “life turns colorful” when it is time for Holi. It is one festival that helps to bring the society together and Vedic Heritage, under the guidance of our dear Guru Maa is playing an important role in strengthen the secular fabric of our country.

Her Holiness Guru Maa was sorely missed but Her blessings and inspirations were felt throughout the evening.