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Gaiety, colour, fervour mark Holi festivities

Political leaders, people celebrate the festival of joy

— Photo: Shanker Chakravarty

CELEBRATION TIME: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam receives Holi greetings from children, who called on him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: Clothes were dyed with hues of many colours and hugs and embraces were exchanged in lanes and by-lanes as Holi, the festival of colours, was celebrated across the country on Sunday with boisterousness and fervour.

Revellers thronged thoroughfares smearing faces with coloured powder and children hurled water-filled balloons from rooftops to celebrate the festival of joy, which heralds the advent of summer.

Friends and foes, forgetting all old grievances, hugged each other wishing "Happy Holi" as streets were filled with groups singing and dancing to the accompaniment of drums.

President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Congress president Sonia Gandhi celebrated the festival with children at their residences here. Ms. Gandhi spent 15 minutes with about 50 children, while the President at a separate function told them to remain happy and spread joy all around.

In Rajasthan, 90 revellers were injured in incidents of drunken driving. People flocked to the residence of Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in Jaipur to greet him on the occasion.

BJP veterans Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani celebrated Holi at their homes with party colleagues.

In Bihar, revellers threw mud mixed with cow dung and tore each other's clothes at Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's bungalow in Patna. Away from their families, security forces, engaged in battling militancy, celebrated Holi at their camps across the Kashmir Valley. At the Wagah border in Amritsar district, BSF jawans offered sweets to Pakistani rangers.

The President and the Prime Minister greeted the people on the occasion, hoping the festival would usher in a new resolve to forge ahead as a nation. — PTI

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