Today is one of the biggest holidays of the year in India – Holi. Officially, Holi is celebrated on the last full moon of the lunar month, Phalguna, and bids adieu to the winter season and welcomes the spring. There is a lot wrong with this holiday, though.
Firstly, it is celebrated by people running in the streets throwing colored powder or balloons filled with colored water at each other and indiscriminately at passers–by. This means that if you are on the street, odds are you are going to get nailed with something and that something is virtually impossible to get out of your clothes, hair and skin. Even passing cars are not above the occasional ambush in the name of bringing good luck to the spring.
The other issue I have with this is the timing. When you read the description, you would image that we have emerged from the cold and wet months into a beautiful, blossoming spring. The reality is that Feb and March typically has excellent weather with temperatures in the high 70s. What we are actually welcoming is the blisteringly uncomfortable heat of the Delhi dry season. In the week leading up to Holi the temperature has steadily risen from 78 last Saturday to 100 yesterday. This is not Spring – this is summer in Hell!
So while the rest of Delhi celebrates Holi, Olga and I are barricaded in our apartment trying not to get splattered with the dye or stroking from heat exhaustion as the temperatures head north of 100.
Happy Holi!
Holi Moli!
ReplyDeleteWhy are so many Indian holiday's about making the biggest mess they can? And who cleans up all this stuff?
ReplyDeleteMy suggestion? Get some of that stuff yourself and lob it off your balcony. Very large water balloons make work best. Do it while you leave your patio doors open and are cooled by your very own expatriate style a/c. You know. When in rome do it like you would when not in rome.
ReplyDelete