Audio clip
Abhilash Purani
With their hands covered in red paint, several Indian students smeared one another’s faces and wished one another happy Holí, meaning “let’s forget about all the quarrels we had in the past.”
Usually Indians use the red because it is considered the color of truth, said Abhilash Purani, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga student originally from India who is celebrating Holí for the first time in the United States.
The International Student Association at UTC organized the Indian Festival of Colors in part to bring cultural awareness to the campus.
“We would like for all students, not just Indian students, to participate in the celebration,” said Asha Ramen the association’s vice president and an India native.
“This is just something that’s really fun, and I thought it could be an event everyone could enjoy,” she said.
Not following the exact traditions of India, the group of about 15 students threw water balloons at one another and painted the face of everyone who was willing to participate, including their International Student Association adviser Nancy Amberson, who passed by on her way to lunch.
“I want to join in on the holidays, too, because we encourage our international students to join in our customs,” she said.
Ms. Amberson said UTC has about 100 international students seeking a degree and 33 in the English to Speakers of Other Languages program.
Sashi Kiran, a UTC student working on his master’s in computer science, said that in India the festivity is usually spread over two days. One day is used to pray and welcome the new season, and the other to throw colored powder and water at one another.
“You can’t go outside without getting wet or painted,” he said. “It is a celebration for everyone. We use lots of colors, and more than water balloons, we use pichkaris, a long tube with a handle at the end used to squirt color water.”
Ricky Causo, public relations and recreation director for the International Student Association, helped the students encourage others to participate.
“I think very positively of sharing things from different cultures with the students here at UTC,” he said. “That helps provide more open mindedness toward things you don’t know unless you’re part of all these different cultures.”
Lynnette Hernandez, also a UTC student, stopped by to find out what the students were doing.
“It looked like fun,” she said. “There were guys who had water balloons and paint all over their face; why not find out what they were doing?”
She said that more international people should be more expressive of their own cultures instead of just conforming to the culture in which they are living.
HOLI
* Also known by the festival of colors
* A Hindu spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal
* Takes place over two days in the later part of February or March, based on the Hindu calendar
* Can be regarded as a celebration of Colors of Unity and Brotherhood, an opportunity to forget all differences
* People usually paint each other with different colors and throw water balloons at random people.
* They also can use water guns called pichkaris, which are long tubes or syringes with a handle at the end used to squirt colored water.
Source: Indian students, members of the International Student Association at UTC
Perla Trevizo joined the Chattanooga Times Free Press in 2007 and covers immigration/diversity issues and higher education. She holds a master’s degree in newswire journalism from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Texas. In 2011 she participated in the Bringing Home the World international reporting fellowship program sponsored by the International Center for Journalists, producing a series on Guatemalan immigrants for which she ...
