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Published: March 17th 2009
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The Unholy Trio
The entire Intrepid group about half way through the event. Near the border between the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh is the city of Chanderi, population about 40,000. Fewer than 1000 tourists visit this city each year, all of them the responsibility of Intrepid Travel, which strictly manages the interface between tourists and residents. As a result, Chanderi has no begging children and no “touts” trying to entice you into their shops. Chanderi also has an interesting mix of Hindu and Muslim residents, who seem to carefully respect each other’s cultures. We were incredibly fortunate to celebrate the Hindu holiday of Holi in Chanderi.
Holi is celebrated with bonfires and “colors” - every Hindu participates in covering every other Hindu (and anyone else willing to participate) with colored water or powders. It’s an opportunity for people to forget their everyday lives and to do things to anyone else that they’d never dare to do on an ordinary day. Tom and I learned about the holiday (get the pun??) and each bought a cheap set of disposable clothes - that turned out to be a really good move, because we were prime targets for every man, woman and child in Chanderi.
Intrepid assigns a local guide to each
Playing Colors
I caught this boy at the school celebration -- it may have been the happiest day of his life. group coming into town; our host was a Muslim man whose nickname is Kallie Bhai. He’s dark-skinned, and the name means “Black Brother”. What a great man! His wife and daughter cooked dinner for us the first night, and he escorted us through town, making sure that we knew that other Muslims do not participate in this holiday, but submitting gracefully to the colors applied to his face, hair, and clothing. He also arranged for us to take part in a Holi celebration at a local Hindu school, convinced the local “royal family” - the landlords - to suspend their rules about women participating in public celebrations. What a party!
Tom was immediately the favorite of all the boys (old and young), while I spent my time with the women, who were worse than the boys about completely covering you with colors. We’d bought bags of colored talcum powder and a big squirt gun with its own set of soluble colors. The gun quickly (and probably luckily) went to the son of the hotel manager, but we took the powdered colors along with us through the town. As soon as the local residents realized that these three tourists (the
Holi Tom
Colorful character ... only ones in town) weren’t afraid to play, the game was on. By the time we reached the school, we were decorated, but by the time we left the school, we were covered head to toe. Some special notes:
- We were able to take photos of the classrooms to send to Trey and his New Orleans students. Tom sat in the only chair, while one of the teachers covered his head with about a quarter-inch of hot pink powder. The kids thought it was hilarious.
- Women of all ages participated, including a great grandmother with few teeth, and not only rubbed my face with colors, but eventually took over the buckets of water and doused everyone.
- A drummer came in, and we danced, men with men and women with women. This was the point when a TV crew appeared from Voice of India (CNN), ready to film us for broadcast later that day. WHAT!?!? Yes, we were on national television.
- At the end of the celebration, we were asked to go into the school’s temple, to take part in thanking the Hindu gods for “bringing something special into the lives” of the school’s students and the
The Sunglasses Effect
All the hair around my face that had turned white is still pink. women. We all had tears in our eyes hearing this.
Later that day, we were invited to take tea and sweets at the home of a local Hindu family, and were again “attacked” with Holi colors, this time by the senior members of the family, none of whom could have been under 70.
After three showers and scrubbing ourselves with laundry soap and a brush, Tom’s head and hair are still pink, green and yellow. His back is purple. My left ear is pink and my back is green. However, we’re luckier than Gill, whose long blond hair is as green as grass. She may need a short haircut to get rid of that …
Tom and I agree that Holi in Chanderi was a life-changing event - we were a part of an occasion that changed the lives of the people in Chanderi, as much as it changed our lives. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The entire experience was unbelievable!!!
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