The matka-breaking ceremony, a popular tradition in western and northern India during Holi, will become an annual event in Baisakhi Abasan.
On the day of Holi, a matka, or an earthen pot, was filled with colours and hung from a height on the road behind the AG Block primary school and then 15 boys of the complex, cutting across communal lines, formed a human pyramid to reach out to it.
Twenty-year-old Sougata Roy was one of them. “Cracking the matka is a Holi tradition that we wanted to start for some years. This time we succeeded,” he smiled.
The boys practised for four days ahead of the event. The stoutest and the tallest ones took position at the bottom of the human pyramid. Another set formed the middle rung. The honour of cracking the pitcher went to the short and wiry Salim Sheikh, who was agile and light enough to climb up his friends’ shoulders. “Once we had tried this out before Covid. Even then, I had been chosen for the job. So I had some practice. It feels great to do it again.” Salim had also been the one to hang the pitcher after filling it with coloured water. “After this year’s success, we are planning to arrange this event every year and make it bigger,” said Roy.