Aanchal Bajpai

Since childhood, I loved playing with colours. When I was really tiny, all the cousins used to come over on the eve of Holi and we used to play on the terrace of our house with our little pichkaris and water balloons. When my parents moved to another city, I used to go to my maternal cousin’s house and all the kids of their locality used to play Holi in the playground. It was so much fun running around with those buckets and balloons in our hands. Then I GREW UP and everything literally changed. Suddenly I started feeling that this festival only belongs to men as I was feeling really unsafe around them. There were many incidences when I safeguarded myself from getting groped.   Today it has become worst when I cannot even think of stepping outside my house in the morning hours when people become wild while playing Holi. I do not live in a gated society so whenever I open my window and look towards the main road during the peak hours of Holi I am unable to find a

I sometimes wonder how everyone around me has such a great life.  On the contrary, I am still struggling among my career options. But when I actually look around, the one thing that looks real to me is loneliness. Considering the fast-paced environment we live in, we all are leaving our true selves behind. Recently, I read a story about a person who lied dead for 5 days on his desk and nobody bothered to check on him. These are the real repercussions of living a parallel life in a virtual world. We need to figure out where we are leading as a society where in our urban population 3 out of every 100 residents are estimated to suffer from depression and anxiety. Are we too occupied to even say hello or have a small talk with our fellow colleague instead of using that time to upload a picture of our Breakfast on Instagram? The reality is even after having many “so-called great buddies”, decently paying job, a great relationship we have become lonely. Most of the people around