Happy Holi!

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March 4th 2007

Published: January 27th 2008

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T L

A Young Painter

Well, we originally intended to head to Mt Abu on the 4th of March (so we wouldn't be travelling on my birthday) but that turned out to be a stupid and ill-conceived plan since it coincided with the Hindu "festival of colour", Dhulandi - the second day of Holi.

On day 1 of the festival, fires are burnt showing the effigy of Holika (a demoness). The significance of this event stems from religious text in which Prahlad, the son of the King of the Demons, Hiranyakashipu is protecetd by his devotion to Lord Vishnu. Hiranyakashipu repeatedly attempted to kill is son for his defection but all attempts failed. Finally he ordered Prahlad's sister, Holika to sit on a pyre with Prahlad on her lap. Holika was protected from the fire by a shawl but as Prahlad prayed to Vishnu, the shawl flew onto Prahlad - Holika was burnt in the pyre and Prahlad survived.

Holi is Hindu's Spring festival and is celebrated in raucous fashion with day 2 being the pinnacle. People take Gulal (paint powder) and water and cover each other in it. They also sometimes drink bhang (a marijuana derivative) and get pretty wasted. The reason relates

Holi Ladies

Day 1 - fire starting

to the stories of Krishna who made the colour throwing popular. Krishna (who's face is blue), complained his consort, Radha lacked colour (too much "fair and lovely" probably) so Krishna's mother applied colour to her face. Krishna also liked to play pranks on the milkmaids (gopis), integral to his tales hence the tomfoolery involved in the event.

When the 4th came we ready to run amuck in the streets of Udaipur. A bag of gulal in hand each (mine was acid purple, Laura's was sunshine yellow), we went on a rampage covering everyone we met with a scoop of the stuff. Obviously we got as good as we gave and the photos clearly show that. An unfortunate negative in proceedings was the small number of Indian lads whose enthusiasm went a little too far - too much liquor gave them wandering, groping hands and a deserved slap in return! In the whole though it was all good-natured fun. In truth we only went crazy for 30 mins before heading back to our haveli and a nice hot shower. There were a few utes with oil-based paint, which turned out to be an arse to wash off but we did

Blurrrr

get pretty well cleaned up - just a small amount of staining. We then headed to the rooftop and the proceded to use the high ground for aerial bombardment. Maybe an unfair advantage but some of the utes deserved it - it was a small fight back by the foreign tourists but all good-humoured!

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