Will Mumbai choose to be left high and dry?

Youngsters celebrate Holi at Shivaji Park on March 18, 2022. File Pic/Ashish Raje

MMRDA ground will host one of the city's biggest Holi celebrations on March 7, but there will be only 'rang barse' and no 'bhige chunar wali' as the organisers have made it clear that the bash will not involve water.

The event was conceptualised by 23-year-old Harshita Shetty, founder of BizBash Entertainment, an event management firm, in a bid to protect the environment and save water, thousands of litres of which are wasted during typical Holi bashes. The ground, at Bandra Kurla Complex, can accommodate over 10,000 people and organisers are making preparations accordingly.

Asked whether people would turn up in large numbers for the dry festivities, the young entrepreneur said, "For years, it has been projected that Holi cannot be celebrated without water. But, this is a wrong perception that has been created in society. Actually, going by our tradition, Holi is a festival of colour and not water. Hence, we want people to enjoy the festival in a modern style - without water but with a DJ, songs, organic colour, etc. But, while doing so, we also want citizens to go back to our original tradition for a cause (avoiding the wastage of water)."

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The event management firm is confident about getting a warm reception from the public, especially as this would be the first major Holi celebration after the pandemic. "Last year, people did celebrate the festival of colours, but since a few COVID cases were reported in India, there was a sense of fear. But, that is not the case now. Technically, this would be the first post-COVID gala celebration. We expect people to come out in large numbers not only to our event but also in housing societies and other clubs organising closed-door celebrations for its members," Shetty said.

There was a time when the state government would spend crores of rupees on transporting around 5 lakh litres of water to Latur in Marathwada daily. However, Mumbai citizens are known to waste several lakh litres of water, that too the potable kind, in a single day during Holi celebrations.

In fact, according to a rough estimate, while playing Holi, a person uses at least one bucket, or about 15 litres, of water. So, in the city, which has a population of nearly 1.22 crore (according to the 2011 census), even if one per cent of the people plays Holi with water, nearly 15 lakh litres would go down the drain - about three times the amount supplied to Latur.