Holi
INDIA | Wednesday, 7 March 2007 | Views [574] | Comments [2]
Holi Festival was celebrated on Sunday...luckily an old friend from Saudi days invited me to her friends party to celebrate Holi. So I totally underestimated Holi. I saw all the pictures before, and thought it was a bunch of cute kids smearing a little bit of colour on people's cheeks. Yea. No. I get to the party and am instructed to leave all valuables in the car and then were greeted by my friend, Ambilika (Pami)'s friends dyed purple. Pami got thrown into this kiddie pool that was now a dark purple (from the combination of so many colours) and then smeared with some more colours for good measure. Since I obviously looked shell-shocked, they were polite and talked to me nicely. For about 5 minutes. And then I got tossed in the kiddie pool as well. My eloquent line of defence..."oh my..no really, that's okay..". Yea that got their attention. Throughout the afternoon I was attacked with colours..I wound up a brilliant neon pink. Oh, and did I mention the eggs? Yes...eggs smashed in my hair. With a bit of beer. Good conditioner? Luckily everyone spared me from the mud throwing...but still, I think I paid my dues. I did get some great shots, and I can't wait to share them with you. But now for some sad news. When I finally met up with my group to begin the travels to north india, we started off at the Friday Mosque in Old Delhi. As I went to get out my beautiful new digital SLR camera, the strap somehow came loose from around my neck, and the camera dropped to the cement ground. So I think its the lens that's the only thing that's messed up, but basically, I can't take any pictures because the apeture isn't working..so its over or under exposing everything. I've been mourning this for the past few days now - anyone who knows me knows how much I treasure my cameras. I'm thinking of buying a cheap digital point-and-shoot while i'm here, but so far everything I've come across is pretty expensive (twice as much as we'd get at home). So I don't know - Didi, any suggestions? Anyways - I met up with my group and they're a good bunch. We spent Monday walking through Old Delhi, coughing and sneezing our way through the chili market, wide-eyed around the marriage market, and always always, on the lookout for pickpockets and spitters. Oh, and I've resumed my favourite eau de toilette for the season - Off Skintastic with DEET! Good stuff. I've been downing 4 cups of chai a day, eating wonderful vegetarian thali's (reminds me of Vatika), and trying to pick up a bit of Hindi. Yesterday we spent all day travelling by train to the hilltop city of Shimla - the summer home for the Brits back in their heyday, and the site where Gandhi, Nehru, Jinha and Mountbatton began their talks and plans for the partioning of India and Pakistan. We're about 2000ft up, and the altitude is certainly felt. Its chilly, but sunny and its really hilly - so great for hikes. So tonight I think I'm going to try and catch a Bollywood movie at the local theatre and catch a sunset at Hyunaman Temple at the top of one the hills. In a couple of days we'll be heading to Dharamsala - the home of the Dalai Lama, and apparently these few weeks is the one time a year that the Dalai Lama gives public lectures in Dharamsala, so we're trying to register there in hopes of catching one of his lectures. Will keep you posted on that!! Thanks for reading guys. Hope all is well on your ends of the world :)
Tags: I should have known better!
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