Ashes for colour

The grim celebration has its preface in a centuries-old curse. Sohana,believe villagers,was “cursed” with poverty. The village land has been historically infertile,and the residents would run small shops; the money they would make would never be enough to buy colour for Holi. The curse,announced a saint aeons ago,would vanish only if the villagers played Holi with “hadda rori” (remains of dead animals) and the sewer water that ran through the open drains.

Though the villagers have acquired a lot of wealth over the last decade,thanks to the real ­estate boom in Chandigarh reaching it,they still fear the curse,the legend of which has been passed down the ages. Nobody knows who gave the curse and when,or the name of the saint who provoked the macabre celebrations. And yet,they give it utmost respect,celebrating a ghoulish Holi year after year.

This year too,the “preparations” were done the night before the festival. Skeletons of buffaloes,calves,dogs and other animals were carted from a dumping ground outside the village,and taken to the middle of village markets in the dead of the night. By the time everyone woke up,loose bones and skulls had been carefully placed outside most shops and homes. A bunch of cut hoofs with the flesh still intact “adorned” the stairs of a grocery store. A buffalo spine hung eerily from another.

Sunita,who lives in one of the markets,woke up to the broken skull of a calf placed outside her milk kiosk. Full of disgust,she kicked the skull and upped the shutter of her shop. She,however,was relieved that it was just one tiny skull. “I came here from Ludhiana after my marriage 20 years ago. Things are still unnerving on Holi day,but not as bad as they used to be. Earlier,there would be so many bones spread around the village that by evening,when they’d be collected from doorsteps and thrown outside the village,the heap formed by them would resemble a hillock,” she said.

The stench of rotten flesh was everywhere. But there was no escaping it. Market lanes were blocked with bricks on one side and upturned carts and rickshaws on the other,so that one had to get off his bike or cycle,and walk through. Like Jagdish Chand,who parked his cycle and walked through the lane to fetch groceries. A 60-year-old born and raised in Sohana,he’s seen it all. “The practice has been in place for decades even before I was born. Narrow lanes would be blocked from both sides,and those who passed by would be whipped with empty sacks soaked in sewer water. Everyone was smeared with ash. Some passers-by joined in while others abused and moved on. The village had bones outside every house,as it was considered to be good omen. In the village square,a whole skeleton would be re-shaped from the bones and placed on a charpoy. Covered with a white sheet,it was made to look like a corpse. Upturned pots around the charpoy completed the picture. The village looked like a ghost town on Holi,” he recalled.

The macabre quotient has thankfully gone down due to interventions by the Mohali police. Three years ago,the district administration,following news reports about the deathly celebrations,ordered the Mohali police to put a stop to the practice. The police has been patrolling the village square the night before Holi for the last three years,ensuring that such celebrations are not held.

This year though,a bit of laxity on part of the police gave villagers the leeway to resume their ghastly celebrations. “The police jeep was stationed in the village at night. At around 10 pm,some youth started throwing ash and dirt on passers-by. The policemen took them away,but did not return. So some youngsters got together and brought all the skeletons from the dumping ground to the village,” said Bahadur Singh,a resident.

Who organises the celebrations? None of the villagers was willing to disclose the specifics,perhaps due to fear of the police. “Everyone here knows who has done it. The village youngsters are all in it together. The curse may or may not be relevant any more,but for the sake of a morbid kick,youngsters indulge in these celebrations,” Singh said.

The entire village,though,seems to be in it together. The reaction of the women and the elders to the sight of bones and ashes doesn’t go beyond a mere shrug,moving about easily as they did in the grisly lane. Even the children who lined up outside the shops for a pichkari or gulaal for indoor Holi celebrations (the normal Holi happens only in the privacy of homes in Sohana) weren’t frightened. Some,like Sunita,watched from rooftops as youngsters threw sewer water and ashes at each other.

As the day progressed,the skeletons were slowly brought down,and the bones gathered. Everything was put into a large trunk,and dumped back on the outskirts of the village. At other places in the village,dogs helped clear up by feeding on scattered bones.

The villagers have been conditioned to accept the practice “as something that they have to live with”,but some don’t shy of lambasting it. “It is a shame. Our village should be known for a charitable eye hospital that was built here or the sacred Singh Shahidaan Gurudwara. Instead,what we are known for is this obnoxious tradition,” lamented Shambhu,a 23-year-old shop worker.

The belief in the curse and its “cure” has,however,strengthened with time. The real estate boom has hiked the cost of land exponentially,and anyone who owned even an acre of land here is now affluent. The villagers attribute this newfound wealth to their Holi celebrations. “There was a time when this whole area was barren. Only trees and shrubs would grow. There was no agriculture. There used to be nothing to eat. Many people here actually believe that the saint’s words have now come true. The Holi celebrations are just a way of letting the almighty know that we have not forgotten our bad days and are grateful to him for our fortune,” said Chand.