This Holi our readers want to become better as a person, by turning negativity into positivity

There are few evil aspects in me and I am fully determined to eliminate those in my life. As the youngest member in my family and among relatives, I am determined to learn how to respect my elders. Also, I want to quit telling lies and speak only truth because what I have seen is that once we lose trust, we can’t be trustworthy ever. These are some of my agendas and I hope the festival of colours will help me achieve these soon as possible.

— Tulip Gyawali, Minbhawan

Holi represents the victory of moral rights and virtue over evil deeds and spirits, negativity and evil thoughts. Socially, culturally as well as morally, it is binding spirit of our life to move beyond obstacles and pain to realise the true joys of our life, that we often forget to identify and celebrate. Holi is an inspiration for me to rise above my limitations and find my inner connection to the universe. It inspires me to leave behind the negativity in life and win over obstacles in life. This Holi, I have resolved to push myself beyond my limits to defeat any procrastination and march forward no matter what comes in life, good or bad. May Holi inspire all of us to celebrate the hidden wisdom, wide spectrum of colours of life to guide us to the path of peace, prosperity and stability.

— Saikat Kumar Basu

We have both good and evil in us and that’s why, sometimes, we make ourselves double-faced. But the only thing is, as time passes by, we must leave our negative attitude and develop it into positive. In our life, we come across many vicissitudes and predicaments, but we must learn to act modestly in all situations. Every year, we make our New Year resolutions. We enumerate our bad habits and try to improve them within the whole year. Like many of the people, I have been doing the same and that has become an impetus factor for me to improve my behaviour. I have made a plan to eradicate my anger and greed. Whenever I go to the market with my parents, I urge them to buy anything new in the market, be it toys, decorative items or anything else. I have realised that this type of behaviour is wrong and I am trying to win over it this year.

— Adhish Aryal, Lazimpat

I want to get rid of my all evil aspects like teasing everyone, disrespecting the feelings of my mum, elders and girls and having an opinion about everything. I want to overcome these because it is making me feel that I am in hell. These activities have stolen my peace. I am always getting busy in these negative thoughts that I have lost my concentration power. The negativity has affected me physically — I have been losing my hair and have lost the charm on my face. I am not able to communicate with people, neighbours, friends, family members especially my mum. My behaviour has also changed nowadays. So, I want to overcome all these this year.

— Anonymous

Lord Buddha advised us

to have control upon five things in life — body, word, mind, food and deed. While I think that

I have full control over my body, food and deed; I fail drastically in matters of control over word. And since word is related to mind also, so question mark exists over control over my mind also.

Actually whenever I hear absurd biased statements (linking any particular community with terrorism) or indirect support to the evil instead of protecting the innocent (questioning the character of the rape victim), my blood boils instantly and I protest against it. While doing so, I forget two truths of life. One, human beings are extremely egoist in nature, never do they amend their fixed opinions on any subject, as if accepting the viewpoint of others amount to defeat of sorts! Two, barring few enlightened exceptions, human beings tend to mix personal opinions with personal relationships — conflict of opinions lead to death of relationship. So, whenever I have expressed my contrary opinion on any subject; the opposite party, far from trying to at least hear my viewpoint, tarnishes our relationship itself!  That means debate leads to nowhere. Neither can I convince others to change their absurd views on any topic nor can I retain our previous cordial relationship also!

So, I have vowed that from now onwards, I will maintain an absolute dignified silence despite hearing atrocious statements. By gaining control over my word and mind, I will try to remain friendly with others.

— Kajal Chatterjee, India

I believe there are two sides within us — good and evil. Selfish person always ends with self which I hate the most. So, I want to destroy my selfishness by learning to be selfless because up to now I have seen or experienced bitter truth, the selfish one can never be good, do good and think good for others. That results in failure and hatred. It is always playing an important role in my downfall. To have lucrative and blooming future we must be sacrificing for others’ good — that’s what I want to achieve by winning over my selfishness.

— Sashikala Tamang, Pokhara

People do have good and bad sides in them which may or may not be noticeable to others. Till date I have not found any person with only good qualities and perfection in them. I guess it is hardly possible to find such person who does not possess any evil side. Even I have such a bad side in me but I don’t assume it as evil. I just want to overcome such qualities. I am an introvert person and most of the time I stay alone. I usually don’t talk with my friends and relatives as well and when I have to, I make the conversation short as much as possible. Friends criticise my behaviour — they even suggest me to hang out with them. But whenever I try to, my shyness hinders me from doing so. I have also lost many of my friends because of such habits. I feel I’m the only responsible person, not them. So, I just want to be an extrovert person with more confidence in me and defeat my introvert nature. I want to be an optimistic person and hang out with my friends as much as possible and live the coming days happily.

— Manish Maharjan

Holi is celebrated as a victory of god over the demons where people meet, play and laugh, forget and forgive and mend the broken relationship. Most people think that Holi is only for fun and forget the significance of the festival. We should get rid of the past errors, conflicts and forgive others. As everyone knows, no one on this earth is born perfectly. Do you really think that the toppers of class are born as talented ones and the spoilt ones are born that way? Of course, not! All are the same but the ones who realise their mistakes and move on succeed but the ones who ignore them get into trouble in future. There is both the good and devil spirit in us. I also lack a lot of things. I lack honesty, patience and tolerance. I wish to burn all these evils in this Holi. I wish to win over all these devils in me.

— Aarya Shree Neupane

During this festival, I have thought about getting not just control but even victory over my anger which has been troubling me for a long time. It’s a well-known fact that anger is the biggest enemy of every human. On top of that, it’s also the deadliest emotion among all for the reason that it leads us to our own destruction very soon. Hence what I have felt is I have got to do away with this problem which has also been my weakness, only then I will be able to make myself a great person.

— Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar, Baneshwor

First of all, it makes me immensely happy to know that our religion has been so rich in directing us to good actions. It gracefully propels us to the ideology of keeping ourselves strong enough to win over all the odds and adverse elements of/in our lives.

I believe that if anyone stands with genuine fact and spirit in any circumstances, no factors can hinder his/her victory. I like to win over the limitations my thought or mentality sets within me during many decisions I make. And, I consistently have to do the same.

I had fear of public speaking, I triumphed it. I had fear of meeting many successful people, I overcame it. Putting into some challenging jobs and venture, I had fear of failure. But, I succeed. And, I want to win all the upcoming odds. So, fear or evil is just an illusion. Winning and then rejoicing is for real.

— Budhaathoki Aakash, Sydney, Australia

Holi, also known as Fagu, is the triumph over Holika, the demoness. My evil calls from deep within, that it is dangerous to take a ride and fly up in the sky. Fear has overtaken me, my strength has weakened. On this Holi, I’ll smear the face of that evil and turn rusted vices into colourful one.

— Nabin Joshi, Kathmandu

We are so much attached with the materialistic world that we never try to feel who we really are. And of course, we are missing the inner peace and divine pleasure. Every minute we die for not discovering our spiritual part. We are watering our ego, anger, greed and all the negative vibrations that we have planted. Well, I always wish to win over my anger which is really killing my personality and hurting all my closest ones. I guess most of the people are looking forward to get rid of this. I regret all my mistakes and I am carving my new life which will be very blissful. By giving up my anger I think I can give up my ego and all the negative impulses and balance my life very well.

— Arun Sodari, New Baneshwor

We all know that a man has both good and bad habits. Man needs to develop good habits otherwise it would be difficult to move ahead and become successful in life. I possess many bad habits and among them is laziness. Due to this bad habit, I don’t exercise regularly and practise yoga despite my doctor’s suggestion to control my high blood pressure and overweight. This habit not only affects my health but also my studies too. So, I want to get rid of my lazy habit this year.

— Narayan Ghimire, Budhanilkanta-12

Festivals are the founders of life and Holi is the best exponent of it. Holi is the festival of colour. It is a special time of the year to break the ice, renew relationships and link yourself who are close to your hearts with a bit of colour. The dominant idea behind Holi festival is that we should live more in harmony with nature instead of trying to destroy her and make her our slave. It is the day which keeps all together. It is not celebrated by a particular religion or caste. Everyone enjoys each other’s company and fill their life with joy and fun. Holi is the only festival which unites and paints the heart with colours of happiness. It is a day full of colours, excitement, wishes and a day to rejoice love. So, it is good to celebrate Holi to make a bonfire of negativity and bring a colour of positivity into our life. Like Holi our life should also be colourful, not boring.

— Kriti Baral, Pokhara

Life is definitely a rose plant that not only bears beautiful aspiring characters but also some evil thorny habits, which we try to reduce and remove in certain time. I am also affected by that truth. I always have the habit of not thinking much before speaking — telling others whatever comes in mind. But it’s not good at all as according to time and situation people can have different feeling and my words can hurt others. In the auspicious occasion of Holi I will try to either minimise this habit or get complete triumph over it.

— Prayash Paudel, Malepatan, Pokhara

It is true that good triumphs over evil. The divinity of good over evil works in an intriguing way. The good prospers over the evil at the end. And it is rightly said that if it seems like a bad ending, it’s not the ending. The one evil aspect of mine that I would like to triumph over this Holi would be my stubbornness. I am rather docile most of the times. But when it comes to some of the preconceived ideas I hold, no matter what evidence I am presented with that contradict my beliefs, I simply deny them and carry on with sheer stubbornness. The reasons behind my ‘evil’ flaw are mostly explainable. However, due to frequent exercise of being ‘stubborn’, I am starting to develop a habit of becoming so even without a plausible reason. Initially that stubbornness gave me my stand. Now, however

it’s starting to bug me. It’s like I was a finely tuned Ferrari before. And now, it’s like the Ferrari’s breaks have worn out due to constant pressure. The right degree of evil can work wonders. But as it’s getting out of my hands, I want to abandon it this Holi.

— Prashanta Babu Neupane, Chabahil

I’ve got different sides in me. I behave to people as they deserve to be treated. Holi is a day for people to get covered with the blankets of colour which absorbs all of your emptiness, sadness, greed and the other bad aspects in you, if you are willing for it to be erased. For me, I have both good and bad aspects in me. People who think I’m good haven’t seen the bad sides in me. I am composed of 95 per cent of goodness and five per cent of evilness. That five per cent holds lots of cruelty, I may destroy the quality of people what I envy about. I can be a nightmare for them, but I would never show my mistake. To speak the truth I really don’t like myself because of that, I truly want myself to be free from what I have been tied to and live my life with peace and no jealousy.

— Spandan

May this Holi bring tons of energy and colour into our lives. As Holi itself is an indication of victory of good over bad or evil, there are many evil aspects within yourself that we have to fight for. Life is full of little things, or say little bad habits which we neglect most of the time. But the truth is that, such small things matter a lot in our life. Also there are a number of evil habits of mine that I want to break in this Holi.

I would like to begin with phone addiction, which has made me owl at night without any purposeful gains. It disturbs my sleep and eventually I tend to miss every morning since I wake up late. Similarly, I have habit of finishing my meal faster as if I would win prize in a contest by gulping out all the food in speedy manner.

The next conduct which I want to eliminate is glossophobia — fear of public speaking. This is a common of all the phobias. When I start speaking in a mass, I encounter panic attack and at the same my mind becomes empty. The last thing that needs to be changed in me is thinking pattern. I’m gradually trying to be positive in terms of thinking but want to grow more positive in the days to come. Due to our thoughts, the way we want to behave and our reaction to anything suffers.

Since man is the creator of his habits, I would love to follow the good conduct and believe in the virtue of being truthful and would like to be accountable to my inner self to acquire better ideas and behaviour.

— Anonymous

Holi has various aspects and significance. The victory of good over evil is regarded as one significant aspects of Holi. We as human beings possess both good and evil aspects within us. No matter how much effort we try to put sometimes our bad aspects dominate our good side. And at times our overall personality gets overshadowed by that one thing. In my context that one evil aspect of my personality is my anger. I am not so angry or hyper kind of person usually, but whenever someone gets on my nerves I just get charged up — my anger takes over me and overshadows the good part in me. I am basically angry on valid issues and reasons but then what I have realised is that it’s very hard to change people’s perspective. Even if you are showing your anger on the right thing there are some people who are always there to criticise others. So instead of arguing with them and increasing your blood pressure over some arguments which is of no use, it’s better I control my anger and live my life happily.

— Tejaswi Pahari, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur