Mina's Spring of Colors

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Young Mina, whose parents came to Canada from India, is a typical
preteen for whom friends are all-important, and antagonists a life and
death obsession. Each year, Mina’s family holds a large, fun party for
friends and neighbors to celebrate Holi, the Hindu spring festival of
color. Mina’s mother describes it as “a wonderful free for all, a
rejoicing for the winter harvest and the arrival of spring. The throwing
of the colored powders symbolizes the letting go of old quarrels and
animosities.”

When Mina hears a new classmate call Nanaji, her grandfather, “a
stupid old geek who can’t even talk right,” she plots revenge. The
colors to be thrown at Ashley will not be washable. The party builds to
a dramatic climax, but when the dyes are thrown by Mina, it is Nanaji
who darts in front of Ashley and receives them. Nanaji observes that the
things that make him angriest about others are things he dislikes in
himself. Mina realizes that she herself has sometimes been embarrassed
by her grandfather’s accent.

The wild party continues, but the ill feeling has gone. Mina thinks
that they all look the same, “covered in color,” a nice double
entendre against racial slurs.

Rachna Gilmore is an award-winning author of many books. This deftly
plotted novel, which makes a moral point with humor and dramatic
tension, is up to her usual standard. Highly recommended.