Holi 2010

Holi Holi..... the most colourful festival on earth! So the day after the Elephant Fair is Holi festival, its always held at the start of summer to say bye to Winter and celebrate good harvest (again so I have been told).

In the week leading up to Holi, all the local stores have a table out the front selling either little bags of coloured Holi dust or you buy it by the grams from the pyramid of coloured dust they have made. They also sell water pistols as you not only throw coloured dust, but now the thing that the kids love to do the most is mix the coloured dust with water and spray it at people on Holi day.

So we woke Holi morning - felt like the excitement of Xmas day and got into our "Holi clothes" that we bought especially to be ruined by the dust. At 9.30am we headed up to the roof of our homestay as we had agreed to play Holi with the family before we headed off to the project co-ordinators house to play Holi with her family and the rest of the volunteers. When we stepped out onto the rooftop we started to laugh as we saw the father and their guests all covered in yellow and orange dust and just casually sitting their eating special Holi sweets (that we made the night before). The visitors stood up and wished us a happy Holi and then took great joy in showing us this is how you celebrate - again the gentle approach with one thumb mark pulled up our forehead then a cheeky clapping of a handful of colour on both our cheeks - let the games begin!

From the safety of the roof we were able to observe the madness on the street below - neighbours coming outside with trays or bags of colour to "bless" each other. Just think of the neighbour you have always hated and use Holi as an excuse to seek the ultimate revenge and it would be considered a blessing! Kids were running mad with their huge water pistols spraying at everyone and everything in their path - including cars driving past with open windows!

Our driver came to pick us up and take us to the house we were to celebrate at and have lunch - we were told its not safe to use public transport on Holi Day and I have to say I am very happy we listened as it was madness on the roads. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw an old grandmother in full sari sitting on the back of a motorbike elegantly but covered in bright pink Holi dust along with her driver. This scene was repeated our entire trip - to the point where we pulled into one residential area and there all these men in their white kaftans and pants covered in the multi coloured dust and walking behind our car so they almost looked like zombies - I would have photographed it except that the windscreen was so dirty the camera couldn't focus.

Sitting in the car we all agreed that the rest of the volunteers were probably waiting for our arrival and hidden in the garden to attack us with colour. As we pulled up we had other concerns - a street full of kids came running towards the car waiting for us to get out so that they could get us. As the car was a van cheekily I told the girls to run out the right door and as they became the bait, I jumped out the left door and ran in through the main gates ha ha. Lucky for me the other volunteers were nowhere to be seen and were still in bed!

We met grandma and grandpa who own the homestay and grandpa was already covered in multi colours - I took a photo as it was very cute. They were getting visitors all day and the same routine would pan out - the oldies would arrive in their whites holding a tray of colour and would gently bless each other by wiping some on each other's face and then when the young one's would arrive they would start using the dust and move onto the water holi which we all concluded we hated as it was cold and the colours wouldn't leave your skin.

It was definitely agreed that dust Holi leave much nicer colours on your clothes than the dark purple/black that appears from mixing all the colours with water. When we finally got all the volunteers together we decided to try taking on the kids in the neighbourhood - I even had military precision strategy that two of us call them up the laneway and once they are all up our end, that the others come from around the back and lock them in - terrible I know!

Somehow we realised that some of the young boys were using car grease and wiping it on people's faces??!!! Suddenly water seemed so innocent.

The daughter of our co-ordinator had her male "friend" turn up and we watched our own Bollywood film unravel infront of us - all we could smirk is "friend sure he is" they were sickeningly romantic taking turns at attacking each other with dust and ignoring everyone else. I thought it was funny that that grandparents sat watching knowingly that another marriage is on the horizon soon!

Our driver was taking us back home when we were hit by a car from the rear - we all jolted forward but no one hurt- the crazy man who hit us, no doubt drunk on Holi day looked at us, smiled and drove off! In true Indian style our driver smiled and said "No problem" hopped out of the car and inspected the damage, laughed and off we drove. No number plates written down or exchange of details - you own a crap car so who cares!

So we enjoyed a delicious Indian lunch, ate even more sweets and got to take part in a crazy festival of colour that could only be compared to the tomato throwing festival in Spain. Incredible India!