Finding a person to play this role was no easy task. But as luck would have it, the Laat Sahab Holi Samiti in Shahjahanpur zeroed in on a man who has been donning the hat, and gear, of ‘Laat Sahab‘ for five years now. As part of the ritual, the ‘Laat Sahab‘ (a colloquial term for high-ranking officer during British Raj) rides through the streets on a buffalo cart while revellers, smeared in colours, cheer and playfully throw shoes and slippers at him in an act steeped in local custom that likely has it origins in colonialism or Mughal era.
