The festival of Holi has just been celebrated in India and across the world by people of Indian origin. Holi
is denoted as a festival of colors. It is supposed to be part of the end of a cruel monstrous King whom
God itself came in human form to kill.

On this specific occasion of Holi though, it is because the night before the human baby God had just
miraculously survived a fire in which his own Aunt supposedly fire retardant, fire resistant, perished.
And with the ashes of that fire, people celebrated and understood that God was with them.

The colors that we apply are vibrant and of different hues: red, green, blue. They are meant to lift you
up, encourage you, take you forward.

But spare a moment and think of those who have depression; in whom the colorful sense of emotions,
thoughts and feelings have gone down. For them, everything seems dark, dull, deglamorized. Nothing
seems to give them any joy or happiness. And this depression often manifests in other aspects as well.
Some have described it as a dark cloud encompassing the brain, not allowing them to think at all. Others
have coined the term brain fog. Others talk about forgetting words, forgetting where things are kept,
not being able to sleep because the mind is blank but alert. Other symptoms are sitting before the
laptop, wanting to work, but just not able to do the simple coding that they used to do five years back.
That is what depression does. It takes away the color from your life. Those joyous moments that you
used to spend with your friends, your family, your children can (because of depression) seem to be
irritating, burdensome and difficult. You begin to avoid the company of your loved ones. How will such
people endure a festival of Holi, a Festival of Colors?!

If you have seen somebody avoiding Holi because they don’t feel like it, because they don’t enjoy it;
please ask them: Do you feel unhappy in general? Do you feel difficulty in finding pleasure in doing
routine things? Suggest to them, encourage them to consult a psychiatrist and maybe at the