BJP celebrates Holi with seagulls, foreigners savour 'gujiya'

Varanasi, Mar 3 (UNI) With the recent poll success in Punjab and Uttarakhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers took to nature playing Holi with seagulls relishing the cool ambience of Ganga river here today.

Led by state vice-president of BJP Kaushal Kishore Mishra and Ashok Pandey, the saffron brigade armed with Holi's must be sweets 'gujiya' and variegated colours embarked on a boat from the Assi ghat.

And then followed a memorable Holi for the BJP, with its workers inviting white seagulls with shouts of 'Aao Khao.' As the winged guests flew to the boat in large numbers, the BJP members welcomed them with 'desi snacks,' 'gujiya' and 'shakarpara.' The Holi feast for the seagulls occupying the boat was capped with 'abir and gulal' in varied hues.

While the BJP workers played Holi with the winged guests from abroad, residents of another riverine locality plunged into the cauldron of colours with foreign tourists hours before the 'Holika' was set afire.

Residents of the riverine Babua Pandey ghat locality played Holi with a group of British, Japanese and Korean tourists amid the resonance of Bhojpuri numbers, sweetness of 'gujiya' and the intoxicating charm of sweets made from 'bhang.' The Holi on the river bank on the eve of the actual festival of colours was as memorable for Kimoko Sugiyama, a young Japanese researcher as for a British college student John Foster.

''Prior to this, I only saw Holi on television, but this real life Holi and that too with bouts of the traditional sweets and intoxicants on the majestic riverfront is just like being on seventh heaven,'' gushed John Foster.

UNI