Each one of us is different, we were born unique as individuals. We grow up in a society that teaches us to be different but we learn it in a uniformed way.
Our lives are coloured with experiences from a very young age, in school, our first job, your first love or our children. As this process grows we tend to forget who we really are.. What is my own ‘color’?
Holi. A festival that uses colors to showcase the start of the spring festival, that represents love, togetherness, somehow explains life a little bit more with colors. It’s an ancient festival of the Hindus around South East Asia, mainly celebrated in India and Nepal. It’s celebrated all around the world by the people of Indian origins together with non–Hindus too.
Today it doesn’t matter what ‘color’ we are, as for this one day we come together with family, with friends, meeting strangers to celebrated this day, to celebrate life. For this one day is called Holi. Just a simple way of life, a simple idea that brings humans together, forgetting backgrounds, forgetting borders. Just remembering ‘color’ is life.
For Holi in Malaysia, on 21st March 2015 this event was organised by a youth group called SDS Youth. This annual event which is held at the Shree Lakhsmi Narayan Temple in Kuala Lumpur, attended by a crowd of about 3000 visitors, mainly local Malaysians and those from all around the world.
Holi Malaysia was self funded by the SDS Youth and from donors, friends of the community and personal friends.
The festival started at about 11am with the crowd lining up from 8am onwards, waiting to get into the temple grounds, cheering on the loud Bollywood music from the DJ’s when the gates were finally open. The basic white tees quickly turning into different colors of green, red, blue and yellow. It was a festival of life that brought colors, music, water and dance together that went on until 3pm. A day you end by looking like everyone else, with similar colors, wet, tired, sun burned and happy.
Who is SDS Youth? It’s a sub committee of the Sanatan Dharam Sabha association who represent the North Indian community in Malaysia. This youth group actively organises cultural events, religious activities, workshops and youth camps. Recently 50 youth members went on the Flood Relief Expedition and donated over RM250,000 of relief aid necessities to over 200 families and children effected by the East Coast Floods here.
The youth of today are capable of doing anything they wish to. Anything they feel happy with or have a passion for. The SDS Youth represents this to us. They are just a group of young humans that came together to achieve a task when it’s done with the right reasons, for life and love. The reality of it is that they live among all of us.
This group of friends managed to put together an event that brought thousands of us in one space, to celebrate happiness and love with just simple colors.
A moment that you will recall over and over again in your conversations, you will smile when you see your images in an album or videos from friends. This moment was gifted to you by the youth.
So let’s be the youth that can come together from different ‘colors’ to make a single day, a day you will always remember. Forget borders, forget backgrounds, just live your passion and share it with the world. Make this day of colors to be everyday for you.
Happy Holi Malaysia!
