Elsewhere, our city boy going places Aparshakti Khurrana remembers the good ol’ days. “The best Holi I remember playing was when I was in school. We used to be on cycles and load ourselves with water balloons and have a mini war with the kids from across the street. It was so much fun,” reminisces Aparshakti who is still undecided on this year’s plan. “But grease, paint and eggs are a no-no for me. I like to play it clean,” he winks. Ditto for actor Yami Gautam who remembers Holi as a big family affair. “We would start early and head out for lunch or a long drive to Kasauli. I was always being played pranks on,” says Gautam.

Someone who is set to make the most of Holi is Anaheeta with a jumbo-sized Holi party at a friend’s farm. “We have even booked a water tanker!”, the store manager at Anokhi spills her big plans. As far as getting naughty goes, Anaheeta remembers the time she guzzled down bhang! “It was a cool party and we made a splash,” she laughs. But some of the messiest moments go to city-based restaurateur Manish Bajaj. “The wildest I played was in college when we would get eggs. While it was fun, it also got every messy. We even used to chuck around mud. Now, I remember those days but play it safe with gulal and a quiet friends-and-family affair,” tells Bajaj.

Wild, wild, wet, Anu Vala’s holi parties at Mumbai were crazy fun, “this was a festival that all of us would associate with never-ending fun and we would crash out at a friend’s home, which had a big pool and that’s where the party took place,’’ the educator recalls how they would colour the water and everyone would be dunked in. “And in one of those moments, I almost drowned and it’s a moment that made me realize that we cannot have dangerous fun,’’ Anu says she began playing safe after that!

Last year’s Holi was full of surprises and filmi ones at that for Neelam Man Singh, who was treated to a huge bash by her sons and daughter-in-law. “It was a whacky surprise party thrown by the children. They invited my actors, musicians, relatives, friends and got old posters of Dhoom-2 and on Aishwarya’s Rai body, they put my face and Hrithik Roshan’s was replaced by my husband’s photograph, so you can imagine what a sight that would have been!,’’ Neelam recalls how the posters were all over the house and received a thunderous applause from everyone. “Kabir cooked rajmah, chicken curry and also prepared bhang and the remains of it in the muslin cloth were lapped up by our dogs, who too had a Holi high.’’