Happy Holi!!!

Hello!  I am currently in Kolkata, in West Bengal, India.  My sister and her boyfriend have been living here since August, which is the main reason I chose to start my journey here.  And the reason I wanted to start travel when I did is because I wanted to be in India for the Holi Festival.  This is a Hindu festival which celebrates the changing of season with color.  And I mean with COLOR.

Holi party at Gabu’s

This festival is apparently celebrated on a few different days during this week throughout the different areas of India.  In the birthplace of one of the gods, I read that they celebrate for the full week, and re-enact scenes from the god’s life.  The national holiday for Holi this year is March 17th.  Bengali Holi is the day before.  (confused yet?)
I arrived late morning on the 15th.  This was perfect as it gave me a little time to recouperate from travel before the Holi celebrations.  I hadn’t known about the 16th and so had lucked out in that I didn’ try to arrive on that day itself thinking I had til today.  My sister picked me up at the airport and we went to her place where i napped a bit before my room at the guest house would be ready.  The guest house is only about a 5 minute walk from their house – quite convenient and very nice. I have my own room and bath.  I met a couple from Sweden and a guy from the Netherlands the first night.  The guest house is affiliated with the American Institute for Indian Studies (AIIS), which is the group Aakash has his fellowship through.

But back to the description of Holi.  The color is created by throwing or smearing colored powder on one another.  Or, sometimes just simply pouring a bucket of colored water over someone (which, incidentally, is how we were greeted at the party – Happy Holi- *splash*!)  Super fun.  Aakash’s friend (and bandmate) Gabu had invited us to a Holi party at his house.  When I got up in the morning, the streets were eerily quiet.  Many of the storefronts were closed and there was a lot less traffic, both vehicular and foot.  And then, from around the corner, came what looked like a gang of boys.  But they were all covered from head to toe in colored chalk!  And then I passed another group and a single and everyone had been painted.  As I walked to my sister’s in the cheap 50cent shirt I had gotten the day before, i could see people eyeing me, all clean and unsuspecting as I walked down the street.  Ah, what a tempting target.  I even walked alongside a group of giggling boys and girls for a half a block and they didn’t color me.  But I could tell they wanted to.  When i got to Aakash and Jayanthi’s, we had a little breakfast and got ready to go to the party.  As I came out of the bathroom, they caught me off guard and the coloring began!   Moments later, someone who worked nearby came to the door and put powder on all of us.  He put it on our foreheads, like a bindhi.

Then we were off to the party.  As we arrived, there were a group of people playing in the street.  Everyone was covered from head to toe in multicolored paint and chalk.  As I mentioned, my sister and I were each doused with a bucket of colored water as we walked up.  Then the colorfight continued for a very long time.

Jayanthi, Aakash and I

Holi party

Now, I knew about the color aspect of Holi, but I wasn’t aware that another part of Holi, particularly in the north, is that people celebrate with Bhang. As soon as we were doused with color, we were handed a glass of bhang. The drink was made with milk and ice cream with cardamom and pistachios and whatnot. Quite tasty. Apparently Shiva frequently took bhang and on holi it’s done to acheive a similar transcendent state. This may be my favorite holiday ever…

Sisters

After we were all covered with color and feeling quite happy, we decided to go for a little walk. And we formed our own gang of colorful hooligans! We walked around the town for a little while before returning to Gabu’s house for some delicious food his mother made.
After we returned home, perhaps the other best part of Holi was taking a shower and watching all the colors run down into the drain.  It looked like a kaleidescope or an easter egg party in my shower.   Good times.  All of the color won’t come off.  I look bruised all down my chest and my feet look filthy, except for the fact that you can tell on the edges that they are purple and green…  It’ll fade sooner or later, right?  

So, long story short – best Holi ever.  And to my Irish and American friends, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!