Happy Holi

Julia and I stayed in Pune for a week after the North tour specifically for the festival called Holi. Like most others, the festival of color isn’t much celebrated in the South, and we wanted to celebrate our last one in style. It felt like Easter as we were woken up by screams of children’s laughter and went to the street of our host’s apartment building to check out the scene. Being a) the only white people, and b) the only people above the age of ten, Julia and I were unsure of how much we would be invited to participate in the celebrations. However, our little host brother and his friends made sure we weren’t left out. The 25 of them ambushed us with their water guns and refused to let up until we were forced to run away and hide an hour later. It was full-on war, and of course we came unprepared. Usually Holi is known for throwing color, but these kids weren’t allowed to use color because some of the buildings had recently been repainted.

Around town we could easily distinguish all the people on bikes who had played Holi. There would be one guy on a bike looking totally normal, then there would be a pink and blue one. Another normal looking businessman before three more pink teenagers. It was pretty funny.

Part two of the day took place with people more our age, color, and music. We found two other exchange students and a bunch of Indian friends completely covered in the brightly colored powders. After the awkward introductions to the people Julia and I didn’t know, we got to throwing some color. The powder came in bags which we ripped open and smeared on all our friends and threw in the air. The boys ambushed us with raw eggs, which they cracked on the girls’ heads, and then we broke out the watering hose. At the end we couldn’t tell who was who, and the magenta sidewalk looked like the scene of Barney’s violent death.  

Aftermath: I had pink ears for two weeks and blue feet for a few days, but other than that I was able to wash most of it off. The clothes I was wearing have been washed six times and still have irreversible stains, which I must admit I love.