When I was planning my trip to India using my trusty Lonely Planet, I tagged all the festivals that I wanted to try and attend during my stay. When I realised that the Elephant Fair was on just before Holi in Jaipur, I made sure that my volunteer project ended that weekend so that I could be free to join the festivities but still hopefully have interaction with the locals that I met during the program to experience a true Holi.
For years I have watched Bollywood movies with Holi scenes and read stories and I wondered what it's really like to be a part of? Surely throwing coloured dust can't be that exciting - well it's everything and more and I think anyone who visits India should be here for this festival.
Annually, Jaipur city hosts the Elephant Fair in one of it's many stadiums - usually held a day or two before Holi festival. To say that all the volunteers in our programme were excited about this weekend was an understatement. We had a old poster for last years festival on our bedroom wall, so all week we stared at it's photos getting excited wondering if it would be all that we hoped.
Everyone told us to ensure that we arrived at around 1.30pm to get a good seat for a 4pm start - not one for patience, we all agreed that this is India and nothing starts on time so let's arrive at 2.30pm - this turned out to be perfect timing on our part. After the rickshaw driver took us to the wrong stadium and we "phoned a friend" for some Hindi instructions, we knew we had arrived at the right stadium as we watched chalk coloured elephants stride past with their Mahouts proudly dressed ontop. Excitement grew within our group of 4 girls.
Everyone told us to ensure that we arrived at around 1.30pm to get a good seat for a 4pm start - not one for patience, we all agreed that this is India and nothing starts on time so let's arrive at 2.30pm - this turned out to be perfect timing on our part. After the rickshaw driver took us to the wrong stadium and we "phoned a friend" for some Hindi instructions, we knew we had arrived at the right stadium as we watched chalk coloured elephants stride past with their Mahouts proudly dressed ontop. Excitement grew within our group of 4 girls.
At the main entrance we were greeted with a lineup of approx 6-7 elaborately decorated elephants and their grandly dressed Mahouts aboard munching away on ice-cream - we all wanted one! There were at this point a couple of dozen tourists taking photos of the line-up's from across the street and us more "buddying photographers" getting in close on different angles for the perfect shot - them with their huge lens camera's and me with my trusty blue digital camera. The Mahouts invited us to go up and take our photos next to their elephant - now remember this is India - land of entrepreneurs.... 10 rupees per elephant :) but we saw some silly tourists pay the demanded 100 rupees that the Mahout's wanted.
We wondered through the gates and came to a building entrance that looked all rather official for guests of honour so we moved onto the next door which looked the same but had an entourage of Indian guards in their khaki green uniforms, moustache's and sticks along side 2 ladies in beautiful sari - one holding a basket of rose petals and the other a basket of Holi dust. "Please please come in" they beckoned us - we were certain we were in the wrong area but heck who were we to turn down a free blessing and the all important showering of rose petals (is it every girls dream to be showered by rose petals on a daily basis or is that just me and my past life dreaming again?!).
Once we have had the customary Holi dust blessing on our forehead - a thumb smudge line that goes up and those lovely rose petals we entered into the stadium to find row after row of chairs with white frilly seat covers and all foreign tourists sitting in them. We managed to grab the last 4 in the shade (as I said perfect timing) and we sat patiently as we watched the crowd grow in the lead up to start time. Now a few interesting things we noticed - as suspected no Indian's really showed up until 3.30pm but most well after the start time of 4pm. I'm seeing similarities in timeliness between the Greeks and Indians - it's a known fact of Greek timing means a minimum hour later and perhaps Alexander the Great influenced the Indians with our timeliness issues too!
Another thing that we noticed is that our area was completely white skin foreigners - any attempts from the local Indians to stand or sit in our area was met with the Indian guards moving them onto the "Indian area only". This was a little disappointing as it was clear we got the comfy seats, decorations, security and shade - whilst the Indians had to deal with the sun and concrete steps. But we were later told and experience that it was for our own safety and that the whole event is put on by the Rajasthan Tourism Board especially for foreigners - still we felt bad and considering the recent terrorist threat to Jaipur, I had to shake the thought that we were ducks in waiting.
Finally the parade began, 95 beautifully decorated elephants in total, along with horses, camels, ox and carts, folk dancers and more. There was a "Miss Elephant 2010" beauty pageant and elephants playing soccer - now I have seen everything.
The artwork down on the elephants bodies was amazing - some in chalk and some in paints. There was a tiger and lion painted along side the body so that the elephants eye was that of the tiger/lion and every time the animal blinked it looked like the tiger/lion was blinking. They also had beautifully layered coats of silver, mirrors, frills and traditional applique on the elephants. Yes I am obsessed with elephants so was in my element.
The security guards lost control of the crowd as the animals were coming out and a combination of Indians and foreigners ran across the field to have their photos beside the beasts and costumed dancers. We had no energy to join them so happily watched from our regal seats, but gave in towards the end of the afternoon when I decided I wanted photos of the folk dancers.
They were very welcoming of photos and were equally as intrigued in us as we were them - kindly no rupee payment was required for photos of them or with them, as long as I showed them my camera after I took their photo. Some of them (inc. local Indians) came up and tapped me on the shoulder pointing to my camera indicating that they wanted me to take a photo of them - then I would show them and you would think I gave them 100 rupees! I put my sunglasses on one of the folk dancers with his bright orange turban and his whole "crew" thought this was hysterical and were in fits of laughter as we took photos. To return the favour one of his friends insisted I wear his turban for the photo - we all enjoyed the comical photo session.
What no-one of our "local" friends had bothered to warn us is that we should be careful at the Fair as the local's do Holi dust throwing there also - we saw a few people covered and I clearly remember jinxing myself and saying to the girls - "thank goodness they have not touched me in my new Salwar Kameez (kaftan top and pants that I bought that day) as I said JINX! So it started not long after my photos with the folk dancers, one of the volunteers recognised an elephant and it's Mahout from his project so we were having a chat. Then a young boy comes up and says "please madam for holi" - he has a bag of yellow coloured dust and I freak out at first but then see he is waiting for my permission - so I agree to just a pooja on my forehead. This then opened the flood gates and they all started asking (we realise its the excitement of not only covering us in dust but getting to touch the foreign girls face!). So I decide it's time to disappear into the crowd to observe the rest of the dancing festivities - we got suckered in when we saw the rose petal shower in the crowd behind us, so excitedly we all agreed to run under the "flower shower". Next thing we know we are surrounded by guys and there is a surge towards us of 20-30 young and old - we realise that we are not accidentally being brushed or touched so I contemplate kung fu-ing my way out of the crowd but instead look at the near by guard for help as he comes in swinging his stick and saving us. We thanked him and agreed it's time to leave as the crowds were growing more confident and we seemed to be main attraction. Just as we were walking off I spotted an old man with bags full of purple, blue and green dust - I scream at everyone to run and the best I could come up with was running to hide behind the guard that had saved us because surely this old man wouldn't have the nerve to take on the guards stick - wrong - I was covered - in my ears, mouth, hair and on my new outfit :(
Had we known and been prepared for Holi at the Fair we too could have had a brilliant time but everyone was in their best clothes so we were spewing! We took it in good spirit though and decided lets just watch from a distance at the rest of the festival - other foreigners who were more prepared than us had a brilliant time in their white outfits that were now multi-coloured and some were lucky enough to be aboard the elephants throwing Holi at the crowds - it was madness but it was hysterical. In the end I bought two bags of dust in a bid to seek revenge on that old man (he wasn't that old so don't feel too sorry for him) anyways I couldn't find him!
Our rickshaw ride home was just as eventful with half of Jaipur burning - the night before Holi they light huge bonfires in almost every street - according to some locals this must be done the day before the dust throwing as legend has it that a mother and her child sat in the fire and because of the sons spiritual beleif they did not die. So they are saying with Holi anything is possible - again this is only what I have been told and keep in mind that an Indians translation into English may not be perfect. So we got to choke on the smoke during our ride home and then battle with our rickshaw driver who was extremly lost and too busy trying to marry one of the volunteers before we then ran out of petrol in the middle of no where and sat there deciding if we should make a run for it or trust him as he walked down the street carrying a 2Lt water bottle. He came back 10 min later, us still in the auto and me giving the local directions to our home. Thank goodness I always look at landmarks as the Ramada Hotel was our saving grace and got us home from there.
This was the start of Holi - but I loved it and want to come back again better prepared for the next Elephant Fair.
They were very welcoming of photos and were equally as intrigued in us as we were them - kindly no rupee payment was required for photos of them or with them, as long as I showed them my camera after I took their photo. Some of them (inc. local Indians) came up and tapped me on the shoulder pointing to my camera indicating that they wanted me to take a photo of them - then I would show them and you would think I gave them 100 rupees! I put my sunglasses on one of the folk dancers with his bright orange turban and his whole "crew" thought this was hysterical and were in fits of laughter as we took photos. To return the favour one of his friends insisted I wear his turban for the photo - we all enjoyed the comical photo session.
What no-one of our "local" friends had bothered to warn us is that we should be careful at the Fair as the local's do Holi dust throwing there also - we saw a few people covered and I clearly remember jinxing myself and saying to the girls - "thank goodness they have not touched me in my new Salwar Kameez (kaftan top and pants that I bought that day) as I said JINX! So it started not long after my photos with the folk dancers, one of the volunteers recognised an elephant and it's Mahout from his project so we were having a chat. Then a young boy comes up and says "please madam for holi" - he has a bag of yellow coloured dust and I freak out at first but then see he is waiting for my permission - so I agree to just a pooja on my forehead. This then opened the flood gates and they all started asking (we realise its the excitement of not only covering us in dust but getting to touch the foreign girls face!). So I decide it's time to disappear into the crowd to observe the rest of the dancing festivities - we got suckered in when we saw the rose petal shower in the crowd behind us, so excitedly we all agreed to run under the "flower shower". Next thing we know we are surrounded by guys and there is a surge towards us of 20-30 young and old - we realise that we are not accidentally being brushed or touched so I contemplate kung fu-ing my way out of the crowd but instead look at the near by guard for help as he comes in swinging his stick and saving us. We thanked him and agreed it's time to leave as the crowds were growing more confident and we seemed to be main attraction. Just as we were walking off I spotted an old man with bags full of purple, blue and green dust - I scream at everyone to run and the best I could come up with was running to hide behind the guard that had saved us because surely this old man wouldn't have the nerve to take on the guards stick - wrong - I was covered - in my ears, mouth, hair and on my new outfit :(
Had we known and been prepared for Holi at the Fair we too could have had a brilliant time but everyone was in their best clothes so we were spewing! We took it in good spirit though and decided lets just watch from a distance at the rest of the festival - other foreigners who were more prepared than us had a brilliant time in their white outfits that were now multi-coloured and some were lucky enough to be aboard the elephants throwing Holi at the crowds - it was madness but it was hysterical. In the end I bought two bags of dust in a bid to seek revenge on that old man (he wasn't that old so don't feel too sorry for him) anyways I couldn't find him!
Our rickshaw ride home was just as eventful with half of Jaipur burning - the night before Holi they light huge bonfires in almost every street - according to some locals this must be done the day before the dust throwing as legend has it that a mother and her child sat in the fire and because of the sons spiritual beleif they did not die. So they are saying with Holi anything is possible - again this is only what I have been told and keep in mind that an Indians translation into English may not be perfect. So we got to choke on the smoke during our ride home and then battle with our rickshaw driver who was extremly lost and too busy trying to marry one of the volunteers before we then ran out of petrol in the middle of no where and sat there deciding if we should make a run for it or trust him as he walked down the street carrying a 2Lt water bottle. He came back 10 min later, us still in the auto and me giving the local directions to our home. Thank goodness I always look at landmarks as the Ramada Hotel was our saving grace and got us home from there.
This was the start of Holi - but I loved it and want to come back again better prepared for the next Elephant Fair.
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