India has the charm of festivities almost all the year round. Itís like you should have various reasons to have a ball. Particularly each region enjoys celebrating all the main festivals in their own way, calling them with different names, celebrating a day or two prior to the main festivals and thus visiting here during any time of the year can fetch you the glimpse some festivities going on!!!
All this has granted India an aura which has showcased it as culturally biased land, and I suppose this is the essence that still keeps up the spirit. There are many festivals celebrated as a local affair here and they are the extension of the main festivals. Thereís this carnival called the Brij festival of Bharatpur which has been duplicating the spirit of Holi and also impersonate the eternal love of Radha and Krishan. (Lord Krishna is one of the gods according to the Hindu mythology and his beloved Radha shared an amazing relationship and this love affair still finds a reason to be celebrated with all pomp and show) A few days before the festival of colors, Holi this festival is celebrated in the month of March. The Raslila is the main enthrallment, a dance form which epitomizes the timeless love saga of Radha Krishan, performed by the villagers of Bharatpur. This spiritual connect is there all the time in human and to oblige with the Gods can never be ignored, and this festival becomes an unfading affair for the devotees who assemble at the Shri Radha Krishnaji’s temple at the dawn to take bath at the ghats of the Banganga River and also visiting nearby shrines of Hanuman and Ganga Bihari, the Shiva temple and the Math of Goswamiji.

The depiction this oldie love saga is not an easy task. The performers are bound to rise up to such a level so as to maintain the grace and Èlan of the story as well as to sink to the roots of culture of those days. The colorful attire worn by the dancers, the cultural music and the stories, the main hero Lord Krishna and the heroin Lady Radha, accompanied by the gang of girls and boys; together they recite the phad (a painted ballad), make the whole scene like we as viewers are living those days ourselves. People in olden days never had the recent technologies to be occupied with, so these dances and singing and teasing was the part of their life. And such festivals make us live these days momentarily.  The festivities are usually tagged with other folk dances and the spectators young and old, rich and poor are all soothed in swayed in the festival spirit. This festival witnesses the popularized Folk opera by the professionals and the amateurs as well. The beauty of the festival can only be seen and felt. To tune ourselves to the history and detangle ourselves from the present can be a unique experience. Throughout Bharatpur, the sound of folk songs fills the air and mesmerizes people. Whole of the place is painted in bright colors and no one is spared from being splashed with colors.
As visitors we have so much to take back with us from this land, but it’s the true devotion to the Gods and to hold dear to the history, that has put an impression that is for keeps and not to fade away from the memory lane.

Photo Credit: