"Holi is the day to express love with colors. It is a time to show affection. All the colors that are on you are of love." – Anonymous

Date: March 1st – 2nd, 2018

Occasion: Holi

Country: India

■ □ ■ □ ■ □ ■ □

XLV | Holiwood

"As the full moon shines high above us, people have started to gather here to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors. The first day has passed, and rituals were performed. All evil spirits have been banished to a distant land, and now, the time approaches to throw some rainbow powder."

"Yawn. Get on with the exciting stuff already. Ya boring."

"I'm just trying to report things as they are! Anyhow, buckets of colored gulal, the powder, are being passed around the crowd. Things are about to go down. This festival comes from the legend of Krishna. The powder throwing is a celebration of Krishna and Radha's love."

"Alright, you know what? I'm taking the mic from you."

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?"

"Like I said before, ya boring. Right, long story short, we're going to chuck colorful perfumed crap at each other in a battle of wills!"

"Well, not really wills, just our throwing aim."

"Stop ruining everything I say! We're on the news, we have to make a good impression. So, Hunger Games, rainbow edition. The rules? Everyone is fair game. Something to do with the legend of Krishna, everyone should be included regardless of age or social status, blah-de-blah."

"The powder also signifies the coming of spring and the new colors brought to nature!"

"If you steal that mic from me again, I'm going to throw powder in your eye."

"Well, now you can carry out that threat, because the battle has begun!"

"Ugh, I just inhaled some of the yellow powder that old guy threw. If that's what snorting cocaine is like, then I'm never doing drugs."

"Fun fact, the gulal used to be made of turmeric, paste, and flower extracts, but it's made out of synthetic materials now, thank the lord. Imagine getting turmeric in your eye."

"Nobody cares about your fun facts! Come on, Sabhya, start throwing powder and have some fun for the first time in your life."

"Sure, fine, I'll just pick up this powder and–"

"What the fuck, dude? Why did you choose to throw powder at me?"

"Firstly, you never specified who I should throw at. Secondly, you're incredibly annoying. Thirdly, you know you just swore on live camera, right?"

"Oh, whatever, you goody-two-shoes. Surprise attack!"

"Ahh! You threw that into my eye, you bastard. Now all I can see is red. Red gulal is supposed to represent fertility and love, Karan! What happened to love?"

"Love has already been struck down in this battle!"

"Wow, that's dark."

"Huh? No, I was talking about that girl over there. Her name's Love, she's in my physics class. She was just bowled over by a huge, muscly guy. Love has been struck down."

"Oh, you meant it literally. Well, that's awkward.

"Green powder attack!"

"Argh! That represents spring and new beginnings! How is that symbolic in any way?"

"It represents me springing into action to destroy your weak ass!"

"Again, swearing on live television! Probably not a good idea. Also, boom! Blue and yellow mixed powder attack! You'll be seeing green for days."

"Ouch! The colors of Krishna and turmeric? What the hell does that mean?"

"Oh wow, you actually did your homework and found out what the colors mean? I'm proud of you. Surprised, and a bit freaked out, but proud."

"Well, whatever, I guess we're throwing randomly now. Just wait until I–"

Karan scooped up a handful of red powder and drew his arm back, aiming for his brother, but Sabhya ducked at the last second. Instead, the powder engulfed the person behind him, who emerged from the dust, face coated with scarlet and malice flaming in her eyes.

The brothers stumbled backward at the same time, their eyes round with shock as they recognized who they had hit. "Oh, shit," Karan whispered, but it was drowned out by the cheers and cries of the battle.

The newswoman they hit glanced at the microphone in his hand, before her eyes slid back to his guilty expression, and the truth seemed to click. "Thieves!" she shrieked, loudly enough to startle a ring of people around her. "You were the brats who stole our equipment!"

"I told you that stealing the equipment would be a bad idea," Sabhya hissed at his brother as they backed further away.

The camera they stole and used to film themselves was propped on a nearby bench, away from the action. The red light at the top continued to blink, which meant that this whole interaction was being broadcasted live on television.

"You know what? I don't want this anymore. Back to you, brother!" Karan exclaimed, shoving the microphone towards Sabhya before sprinting away as fast as his legs could carry him.

"I don't want this!" Sabhya shouted, shoving it towards a nearby stranger, who looked utterly bewildered. He was frozen to the spot, consumed with so much panic that his nerves were on overload.

Two burly men hurtled towards the enraged woman and skidded to a stop. They looked from the woman to Sabhya and back again, before putting two and two together. Sabhya knew that his only method of survival was to run, so he took off after his brother.

There were pros and cons with trying to escape through a thick crowd. The pro was that the explosions of color everywhere and people pressing in on each other was a great way to conceal himself. The con was that it was difficult to actually get much running done, and Sabhya spent most of his time squeezing between people than hightailing it out of there.

"Get back here!" came a sudden roar from behind him. Sabhya chanced a look behind him and locked eyes with one of the burly men, who was hot on his trail.

A streak of scarlet powder soared into his path and exploded with the force of a tiny bomb, separating the two. While the man succumbed to hysterical coughing, bent over double, Sabhya managed to slip out of the red cloud and dart away. "See you never!"

He sprinted past a row of buckets filled with powder and weaved through a giggling family. Sabhya supposed the other burly guy had gone after Karan, but his brother seemed to have disappeared, and there was no way they could find each other when people were attacking each other with color bombs.

As Sabhya skidded on a carpet of blue gulal and someone suddenly appeared in his path. They crashed into each other and tumbled onto the floor, which made multicolored imprints on their already soiled shirts. "Argh!" came a familiar shout. "Who the hell are you?"

"It's me, you idiot," Sabhya hissed, grabbing Karan by the shirt and pulling him to his feet. "Where were you? Where are we now?"

As the words left his lips, he noticed the blinking camera they left on the bench nearby. They had run full circle. The woman and the burly men had disappeared, probably lost in the crowd while chasing the brothers. "Oh damn, we went full circle," Karan whispered, before shooting a grin at Sabhya. "Also, that was awesome."

Sabhya opened his mouth to remind him that they were still being hunted for stealing news equipment, but a stranger tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around. "Uh, I think this is yours," he said, handing the microphone back to Sabhya.

"Well," Karan said, dusting himself off and snatching the microphone from him. "We may as well give this news report a proper ending."

"We're on the run!" Sabhya hissed with wide eyes. "We're practically fugitives!"

"We have nothing to lose," Karan corrected, turning to face the camera. "So, for you folk watching the news, you're probably very confused. Not to worry, stuff like this always happens during Holi."

"No, it doesn't." Sabhya heaved a sigh, taking hold of the microphone. "Also, sorry for the interruption. The point of this festival is that it celebrates the triumph of good over evil. It's the festival of color, or joy and celebration."

"Also, of chucking powder at the faces of your enemies," Karan added, dumping a bucket of green powder over his brother, who rolled his eyes. "To be real with you, Holi is something you have to experience. You need to join in to understand how awesome it is."

"And as we bid you adieu," Sabhya chimed in, reaching over to turn the camera off. "Remember that every life deserves to have a bit more color."