Erika in India

Happy Holi!

Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors, is a holiday celebrated at the last full moon at the end of Winter. Usually people throw colored powder and water at each other and if you are unlucky, you might also get an egg or tomato thrown in too. I had my first Holi celebration today and it was a ton of fun! I looked like a monster by the time I was finished playing but it was worth it.

I had just come back from Hampi (blog post about that trip coming later this week) at 7 AM and I had taken a bus so I was tired, but I had heard that Holi celebrations start about 9am and I didn’t want to miss it. So I ate quickly and changed into clothes I could dirty. I had bought some powders in Hampi at a bazaar a day earlier so I was prepared. I left the hostel with a group of friends around 9:30am to begin our 30 min walk to the women’s hostel since we didn’t want to play the the men. As we were walking out, a group of guys covered in blue saw us and ran up to us. They looked scary since their faces were all blue and they were running towards us with blue powder. They rubbed the powder and colored water on our faces and said ‘Happy Holi!’ and we did the same to them. Then we continued our walk across campus. The same thing happened to us several more times on our way to meet up our friend Priya who lives in one of the female hostels. Basically people roamed around campus in groups and the different groups would meet up and throw colors and water at each other. I felt bad for the people who walked around on their own because they would get mobbed by people.

Finally we reached the gates of the women’s hostels and it was madness. On one side were the girls who were hiding behind the gates because the guys can’t cross over. On the other side were the guys who were trying to call the girls out and they had eggs, tomatoes, and tons of powder and water. At one point I saw a girl who was completely clean so I yelled ‘she’s clean!’ and a ton of girls ran towards her. She had a face of pure terror but she couldn’t run anywhere and she ended up covered. The worst part was realizing that you were about to be attacked by several people all with different colors. I tried to play more with the girls because the guys were absolutely brutal to each other. They would even rip off the shirts of the people were attacking and if a girl was wearing a scarf to protect her hair, they would snatch that off too. I got my glasses knocked off right at the beginning. The girls would just run up to me and lightly smear colors in my hair and face then wait for me to do the same to them. I preferred to play with the girls.

I took a really long shower and washed my face 3 times but all of the color still hasn’t come out. I have a magenta forehead and ears and I might have to go to class tomorrow like that.

This is what I looked like at the end of it. I really wished I had taken pictures during the festival but it was too dangerous for my camera. It would have gotten wet, scratched, and covered in colored powder.