There is a recurring discussion each time it is Lohri time here in Delhi – is this a real festival, why aren’t more people celebrating it or is this just a bonfire that makes people come together? For me, the cheerfulness is essentially about the bonfire thing. In a way, it is the perfect recipe – winter season and the opportunity to light-up a bonfire in metropolitan locales that are inhumanly low on person-to-person interactions, where running into each other seems like a mishap. Lohri carries the aura of coziness in the most literal sense. For the more dedicated Lohri enthusiast, this bonfire is like a beacon of sustaining sub-cultures that are in stark contrast to the city pattern that compartmentalizes and mechanizes our life.
