Two hours of joy, by Raj Sarkar
Sometimes you are lucky enough to witness an event which will remain unforgettable in your entire life. I was lucky to witness the widow holi at ancient Gopinath Temple,Vrindavan on the 21st of Mar 2016. What I noticed was untamed joy and happiness of the 1000 widows who had come all along from Varanasi to celebrate this special holi. This was the first time widow holi was celebrated within a temple. They played holi with color powder, rose and marigold petals and simultaneously it was showered from the top of the temple.
I was perplexed witnessing such beautiful and unforgettable moments of colors and the energy of the widows aged between 22 to 100 as if the energy was reserved for a long period of time within their soul which unleashed that day.
Palpable excitement could be seen everywhere within the temple as the widows smeared each other with color powders and was dancing as well.
The most significant part of this event was the breaking of old tradition and wrong believe that hindu widows cannot take part in religious festivals as it was considered as inauspicious and they have to dressed only in white.
All total 11 quintals of color powder and petal were arranged for the special event and it was dedicated to Lord Krishna. I would say this is beginning of a positive thought and actions by the well-wishers of the country and a great step towards showing us the right way of life.
Raj Sarkar is a finance personnel in Airports Authority of India and a photographer by passion. Enjoys travelling & documenting street life. His photographs has won several awards and been published by several agencies like National Geographic, Asian Photography Magazine, Smart Photography Magazine, Saveus Magazine (Wild life), Streetphotography magazine, Inspiro magazine, Chalo lets go, Photoburst, Photoflock, World Street Photography, Wild bird trust, 121clicks.com, Nikon India, Pinterest etc. and also have been short listed under top two hundred in Garuda world photo contest in two different categories and short listed in HIPA