Celebrating their emancipation from living a socially ostracised life, hundreds of widows at Vrindavan played Holi at the historic Gopinath temple for the sixth consecutive year, marking a departure from a tradition where widows are looked down upon. They also sent ‘gulal’ (coloured powder) to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was a festival of colours with a difference as hundreds of widows clad in white sarees came out of the ashrams to play Holi by sprinkling gulal at each other at Gopinath temple in Vrindavan on Tuesday.
Apart from celebrating Holi, the widows prepared herbal ‘gulal’ of various colours in 11 earthen pots to be handed over to the aides of the Prime Minister.
Ninety-five year old Manu Ghosh said, “As we have accepted Modi ji as our brother, we have arranged special ‘gulal’ for him this year. It symbolises love from thousands of his widowed sisters.”
“It is also a symbol of freedom from the age-old practice of social ostracism of widows,” felt 81-year-old Kanak Prabha.
Five widows from Vrindavan will go to Delhi to hand over the ‘gulal’ and sweets to the Prime Minister tomorrow. For the last couple of years, some widows hav been visiting the Prime Minister at his Delhi residence to tie ‘rakhis’ on the occasion of Rakhsha Bandhan.
A large number of aged widows spending their twilight years in various ashrams in Vrindavan and Varanasi today appeared to be ecstatic as they gathered at one of the oldest Krishna temples in crowded Gopinath Bazaar in Vrindavan right from the morning. The widows of Vrindavan drenched each other in colour as they took part in the celebrations organised by NGO Sulabh International which has been organising Holi for the widows for the last couple of years.
“The celebration is an attempt to add a dash of colour to the otherwise insipid lives of the Vrindavan widows, who earlier used to live like recluse, deserted by their families.” said Sociologist and Founder of Sulabh International Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak. Dr. Pathak joined the widows in the celebration while a music team from Sulabh sang devotional Holi songs and Krishna bhajans.
