Those entering Rainbow Terrace Adult Day Health Care Center on Monday had no choice: Their faces would be smeared with colorful powder.
Holi signals rebirth — the triumph of good over evil at the beginning of spring. Throughout South Asian countries and across the world, revelers take to the streets and throw colored powders in the air and at one another in celebration of winter’s end.
At Rainbow Terrace, Holi holds special significance. The center serves a distinct clientele — almost three dozen Indian seniors, mostly from the state of Gujarat. With a separate dining room and caterer specializing in vegetarian cuisine, the adult day program brings a taste of the subcontinent to a nondescript suburban office park.
The center relieves caregivers who may be unable to care for seniors while at work. It also provides participants a welcoming place in a unique community, said Alisa Kipnis, Rainbow’s operations management program director. In addition to an in-house hair salon, three meals and social workers, Rainbow offers yoga and transportation to local Hindu temples.
“These people are able to communicate with their peers who are same age, who speak the same language, and who have the same interests,” she said. “The main goal is to keep them busy and keep them active.”
Gita Pandya of Ellicott City, who came to the United States in 1992, put it simply: “Rainbow is heaven for us.”
On Holi, Rainbow pulled out all the stops. Program participants arrived around 9:30 a.m. and prayed in an in-house worship space. Women dressed in colorful saris and streaked one another’s faces with pigmented powder. Within minutes, all those who came into the celebrants’ orbit — including the staff of Rainbow and two journalists there to document the festivities — were marked with similar bright lines on their cheeks and in their hair.
At around 10:30 a.m., the revelers made their way to two buses that transported them on windy roads, past farms and ranch homes, to Shri Mangal Mandir Temple in Ashton — a Hindu place of worship within a few thousand feet of two churches.
Jamese Douglas, a driver for Rainbow, has worked for the center for three years. With other staff, she helped the seniors, some using canes and walkers, on and off the buses.
Face smeared with powder, Douglas, who is Methodist, said she had learned a lot about religion from her Hindu clients and even picked up some words in their language. In the end, differences among religions didn’t amount to much, she said. Even “Krishna” sounds like “Christ.”
“We all worship the same god,” she said.
At the temple, members of the group removed their shoes and entered a worship space ringed with deities, including Krishna and the monkey-faced Hanuman, who is thought to bring strength and good luck. Members of the group participated in Garba, an Indian folk dance. They moved in a circle and clapped their hands.
Then, the group gathered before the deities, chanting. Bhikhalal Popat, 82, translated:
You are the mother
You are the father
You are the teacher
You are everything
Popat said he came to the United States in 2002 to work as an electrical engineer at companies such as Sears and Walmart. He believed that Western religions’ focus on morality fundamentally differed from Eastern religion, which was interested in energy — that is, channeling spiritual energy for use in everyday life.
In the end, Popat said, individual beliefs didn’t matter. The important thing was to believe something. Without faith, according to Popat, people are “nowhere.”
“We are all family,” he said. “God is in everyone’s heart.”
Back at the center, the celebrants enjoyed a lunch of soup and Indian sweets before returning home. Holi was over for 2024 — but, for this group, each time they meet at Rainbow Terrace is an occasion to remember.
The group, Popat said, can find reasons to celebrate every day.
