RICHMOND, HOUSTON, March 6, 2007: Swati Verma looked like she was the loser of a paint ball competition on Sunday afternoon. Orange and purple powders were splattered all over the 16-year-old Memorial High School student’s clothes. Red and yellow coated her hair and inside her ears. She wasn’t on the wrong end of a paint fight, but celebrating Holi, the Hindu festival of colors that commemorates the arrival of spring and victories of good over evil. Almost 150 people attended the festivities at Sardar Patel Park in Richmond. “Holi is a spiritual celebration for all Indians,” said Anu Udpa, vice president of the India Culture Center in Houston, one of seven groups that sponsored the event. “It’s one of the festivals that brings all Indians together.”
Children and adults alike shouted “Happy Holi” before splattering one another with colored powders, known as gulal. Some people even sprayed waterguns and threw bottled water at each other, turning the gulal into a drippy paint. Traditional and modern Indian music blasted over loudspeakers in the park while many people danced and others chatted about the day’s event. Attendees also circled a large bonfire while they tossed flowers into the flames for respect and coconuts for good fortune. “All the bitterness of the whole year, you burn it up here,” said Gopal Patel, president of the Gujarati Samaj of Houston. Sangita Doshi said the festival is a good way to educate her two children about their heritage. “We feel like our culture and the feeling of the festival is here,” she said.