A Festival Of Hidden Truth

The whole world celebrates Holi as a festival of colour but for her it is a festival of masking face, hiding the truth behind deep black, blue, golden and silver colours. It is the only day when everyone denies to see the reality, a truth. People colour others, throw everyone into pool of water, get intoxicated after consuming bhang, and the most exciting part is that they can create a nuisance without any guilt. Women are mentally prepared for inappropriate touch, uncontrolled frenzies, double meaning comments and above all a compulsory involvement in every nasty activity to maintain the cheerfulness of the festival.

She is habituated of this masked day as it is seen in her profession daily. On Holi at least after cleaning the face, wearing fresh clothes and greetings all ‘Happy Holi’ the purity of the festival remains. But in her profession truth is hidden forever. 

She is an ordinary lady. Her daily routine is the same – offering flowers to goddesses, sending her children to the free municipality school where all the other kids are from the same background. The teacher is very sensitive to her and other ladies of her profession. Regular medical checkup, free distribution of sanitary napkins, birth control tablets, knowledge and an encouragement to complete education till matriculation are provided to them from time to time. Many women of her profession go to day school, learn moral values, and return with the understanding of how to protect themselves from the cheaters, manipulators and how to fight for their rights.

This world, one of her clients tells her, is a stage and we all are artists. How intelligent and observant the person is who has written this! Her whole life is playing the part of someone she is not in reality. The ordinary lady of morning converts into someone she is even unaware of. She recalls how her mother affectionately has taught her all the household activities in the village so that her mother in law would be full of praise for her. Her mother comes to her vision regularly with a mirror which reflects her past. 

She hated school and so was never pressurized to be there by her parents. When she was thirteen years old, she met a handsome man who was new to the villagers and was posted as a manager in a dam building project. She was extremely innocent and that innocence made the man to draw towards her. One evening he proposed her and without informing her parents she fled. They stayed in a city. 

Since then she has been in Kolkata. A city which has witnessed her transformation. From an innocent girl of thirteen how with the arrival of Holi that year she turned into a woman beyond comprehension. She became a matured maiden having knowledge of all the dark realities. That Holi was her first Holi in the city and she was excited to play it in the manner she used to in her village. Her man explained after marriage she was no more a young girl. He took her to a house where many ladies were staying together. It was morning and the house she entered was like a commercial place. A lady was introduced to her and she was welcomed. She was happy to see many friends as she was missing this gathering since she left the village. Her man instructed her to stay there as he needed to go to other city for office work. She readily agreed. The man left. In the house all played Holi and in the evening when she was tired of all that merriment, she encountered the truth.

She is now 35 years old having three children and still living in the same vicinity. She prepares dinner for the children as she will leave for her late evening work. The children have returned from school. It is a very common sight for them to see their mother dressed up in an unusual way with heavy makeup. They often ask why she turns into an unrecognized self every evening and stands at the corner of the road. She replies nothing as she too is unknown to her own self. She only knows she is a single mother and just as an earthen diya hides beneath her light the dark secrets which will be revealed to the children only by Time. She leaves the house with wearing a false smile, a face glowing not with the dignity of a working lady but with an expensive face mask and a mission to entrap males who to remain masked can shower on her few largest denomination currency notes.