With Holi around the corner, we turn to the hills from where nature announces the arrival of spring | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

With Holi around the corner, we turn to the hills from where nature announces the arrival of spring | Lifestyle News, The Indian Express

Written by Shiny Varghese |Updated: March 20, 2019 8:26:25 am

With Holi around the corner, we turn to the hills from where nature announces the arrival of spring

Much before Holi though, children bring flowers and sweets, laying the petals before every door, and in return are treated to food or clothes. It’s a way of inviting blessings and announcing the arrival of the season.

Entertainment was more community driven, where the dependence was more on each other, than external elements

Mohan Singh Karki remembers the time as a child, when he would return home with lips and tongue red, having feasted on buransh or rhododendron flowers. It was not uncommon for children to eat these flowers when they went into the Uttarakhand jungles to fetch firewood, graze cattle or play with friends. Somewhere between the deodar and pine landscape, buransh would welcome spring with its bright clusters, dotting the green-grey-white landscape with a flourish of red. What people call a cultural motif of Uttarakhand, is also the state’s national tree.