Brajdham ki holi

After a miss in 2021 due to covid lockdown, plan was set for Braj ki holi 2022. Accordingly, I started from my home in Kolkata early in the morning to take the Vistara flight to Delhi. I reached Delhi T3 airport on time and availed the Delhi metro to reach New Delhi Railway station. I spent some time in the executive lounge of IRCTC, where I had lunch at a nominal rate and took some rest.

My connecting journey to Mathura was booked in the GT express, one of the oldest trains in India (started in 1929). The co-passenger happened to be a Bengali as well who was travelling to Agra for business purposes and we struck a chord instantly.

I reached mathura junction shortly after 6:30 in the evening and then took an auto to reach vrindavan where my fellow photographer friends were already waiting for me. We were meeting after 2 years and clearly we were overjoyed.

Quickly we finished our dinner from a nearby restaurant and got started with wrapping our cameras in plastic covers.

We started sharp at 8:30 for our photography point, Barsana Radha Rani Temple where we were supposed to shoot Lathmar holi. On the way we had stopped for breakfast and there we saw some amazing wall arts.

The lathmar holi is a ritual where women of Barsana beat the boys and men using sticks who come from Nandgaon to play Holi. Of course, the men do not get hurt as it is totally symbolical and they use a shield to protect themselves.

After a successful shoot throughout a tiring day, we returned at our hotel late night. We put our devices on charge and jumped into the bed to get ourselves charged for the next and most important day of the trip.

We woke up a bit late as we had decided that we will start for Nandgaon around 11 in the morning instead of our usual 8:30 am. I took this opportunity to take a stroll down the streets of vrindavan and absorb the vibes of the city. While on the walk, I couldn't resist myself to try pedas (a type of sweet) from a local sweet shop.

We started for Nandgaon at 11 am sharp and by the time we reached Nandbaba Mandir, it was already 1:30 pm, thanks to the long queue of vehicles. But once inside the temple premises, our sulking faces in the wink of an eye got big wide smiles. The entire area was full of colours and people dancing to the tunes of holi songs. But the Samaj Celebration, which was the main attraction was yet to start. We spent some time taking portraits and chatting with local people until it was some 5pm and a steady stream of people smeared in colours started to enter the temple premises. That's it !! The samaj was about to start. We got ourselves ready, and ran straight into the crowd.

I think, explaining the celebration of samaj is beyond my capability so here goes the pictures.

Finally, it was the day to return. I had my reservation in Kota - New Delhi Janshatabdi express which would take me till Hazrat Nizamuddin station. From there I took a rickshaw to New Delhi Station to get myself fresh and have lunch in the IRCTC executive lounge. Once done, I took a metro to T3 airport for my Air India flight back to Kolkata.

This has been the second time that I visited Braj during Holi and this year it seemed much more colourful than the previous time. While I sit down now and process the trip in one part of my my head, the other part is already planning for 2023 holi in brajdham. The trip was hectic, it was draining, but the vibes awere electrifying, the ambience was magnificent

To end, I will quote my friends from Vrindavan: "Holi ho to Braj jaisa".