At the party thrown by Tabbassum and Avi in their backyard in Cupertino. / Leena Sujan

Every year Tabbassum and Avi host a Holi party in their backyard of their home in Cupertino California. 

Since when?  “Oh Gosh I don't even remember. Since forever,” said Leena Sujan. “I host the Diwali party and she hosts Holi.”
Families celebrate festivals together. The communal celebrations create a microcosm of desh. Indian Americans, who in India would have stepped out of their house to a celebration, drive to a communal gathering.

Community gatherings of Holi in the Bay Area started in temples and universities 30 or so years ago. The Sunnyvale Hindu temple and Community Center on Persian drive in Sunnyvale hosted its first Holi celebration in the Bay Area in 1997. Other temples followed suit. The temple gave the community their backyard, the Holi color powder and loud Bollywood music to rock to. TV cameras like Star TV flocked to interview the crowds. 

In Sunnyvale, we rocked to the music and chased each other with abandon. As the festival grew in popularity the temple put an end to us rolling up to Burger King and McDonalds drive throughs at the end of the afternoon in our colorful strangeness. They served a meal for $5. Included in the meal coupon package was also a bag of dry color. No water jets shot through the air. It was still cold in the Bay Area. Playing Holi with water was not allowed. Volunteers doled out yumminess to a queue of multi-colored people while the music blared and children partook in their parents’ glee. 

Growing up in Delhi, though it was my favorite festival it was not one that I could wholeheartedly participate in. As a girl and the only child in the house I would fill water balloons and toss them from a distance. No mingling with strangers was allowed and the neighbors did not like their front lawns being messed up. The festival was an opportunity for the unruly elements. 

At the Fremont Hindu temple in 1998 memories of my three-year-old son being accosted by a group of teenage girls comes to mind.  “Can we have some of your color,” they asked him sweetly, their eyes on a group of boys. “Here,” he said as he flung the color at them, showering them in red, green and yellow to their utter amazement and letting loose peals of laughter and surprise. One can never have enough color!

My Pakistani American travel agent, Nusrat, shared with me stories of her growing up in Pakistan. We celebrated Holi, she said to my surprise. I had not thought there were Hindus in Pakistan. “Of course there are,” she said. Community events by Hindus have been reported in various cities, including Karachi, Hazara, Rawalpindi, Sindh, Hyderabad, Multan, and Lahore. In Sindh which has the largest percentage of the Pakistani Hindu population, it is particularly popular, she said. 

Tabassum is in an inter-faith marriage. Her spouse Avi and she host a Holi celebration for their friends in the Bay Area. Holi is fun only when a group gets together in abandoned merriment. 

A few years ago, I found myself in Delhi on Holi and the abandoned streets reminded me of the Holi of my childhood. Stepping out of our ancestral home, forty years later my brother said to me what my mother had said forty years earlier, “Don’t make a mess!” 

The bright spark came when I led my boys and now their white girlfriends to the Gulmohar Park Club in Delhi. Here I found my American Holi!  Music blared and children ran around shooting color into the air. Hot sizzling food cooked on the barbie and merriment overflowed. 

Neighborhood clubs in Delhi have stepped in to make Holi a festival that can be enjoyed by families in their own private enclaves. 

In the Bay Area too Holi celebrations have burgeoned.  Cities like Burlingame, San José, Oakland, Fremont, San Francisco, Foster City, San Joaquin, San Ramon host their own free and ticketed celebrations. 

“We are not celebrating any Holi festivals in the Sunnyvale Hindu temple and Community Center because of limited parking, and we have just one entrance/exit point,” said Surojit Sengupta who was a member of the team that organized the first Holi festival at the Sunnyvale Hindu temple. 

This year in California we are heading to the Santa Clara fairgrounds. I am going to rock to Sukhbir Singh Live, DJ Rush, Ishmeet Narula, VIP, bar, food, color throws & nonstop fun! 

“Punjabi mundhe paon bhangra!!”

Families celebrate festivals together. / Leena Sujan