Hyderabad celebrated Holi with traditional gusto after nearly two years of COVID protocol that placed restrictions on movement of people and large gatherings.
“I played full-fledged Holi this year with my college friends whom I never met in person due to online classes. This was the first occasion when we met and had fun,” shared G.A. Mitra, a student of ICFAI Business School who lives in DD Colony.
While traffic was thin on arterial roads, a noisy colourful celebration unfolded in the inner lanes and streets of the city with gangs of revellers travelling on vehicles shouting “holi hai”, throwing colour and greeting other revellers.
The road connecting Mussalam Jung bridge to Goshamahal was lined with bhang and thandai sellers with barely recognisable citizens stopping to drink or bite into laced sweets. “Business is good. It is always good as people from across the city come to drink the thandai,” said a vendor who was busy dealing with a stream of customers.
Dry colours were the norm this year without a word being heard about herbal or natural colours. The bags with dry yellow colour carried the legend ‘for industrial use only’.
Children in residential areas had a different experience as it was an outing after a long time. “We played with water balloons. I have more friends in the colony now as we became close since we didn’t have to go to school,” said Arya Kumar, a class VII student living in Neredmet area.
