BOM: Let's throw paint on each other

So one good thing about being my trip being extended is that I got to stay for Holi. Holi is the Hindu new year, and people are out on the street celebrating and throwing paint on each other all morning. Please do not think I took the above photo, the quality is far higher than I can do. :)

For full details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

So no one works on Holi, and I was warned not to leave my hotel lest I get pink hair. Pink hair?!? That sounded fun to me, so the female Engineer from [satellite receiver company] and I decided to go out on Wednesday and see if we could get all colourful.

Wednesday dawned, I slept in. I ate a leisurely breakfast, and was ready to go out by 10:30ish. In preparation for the day's events, I had put vaseline on my finger and toe nails, so they wouldn't stain pink. Pink hair is one thing - but pink cuticles I thought would perhaps look a bit like I had some sort of disease.

All morning I could hear the revilry from my hotel, and was very excited to go out. Before we left the gate the guard warned us we'd get coloured if we left - he didn't want to let us go!

So out we went. We walked and saw coloured people, and everyone wished us a happy Holi. Ok....but there was not so much throwing of paint. What what what? I was wearing my ruined Salwar Kami, I WANTED to be painted. Why was no one playing Holi with me? :( I was starting to realize why they said we should go out in the morning -I think the main Holi fun gets going pretty early, and peters out in the afternoon. Or perhaps it was that everyone was too shy. I think they were asssuming maybe two white ladies didn't want to play Holi, we were just walking around by mistake.

Was this dog going to have more Holi fun than me?

Someone threw a bit of green paint on us as they drove by. Ok-ay....was that it? Was that all the Holi fun I was destined to have? :(

[insert suspenseful music]

Thankfully, we ran into a bunch of happy Holi little boys, who were more than willing to put colour all over us, shake our hands, and say "HAPPY HOLI MA'AM!". They were super cute. They got really excited when I took their picture:

On the was home we played Holi again - some fellows in an AutoRickshaw stopped and coloured us up good.

Anyhoo, you're probably dying to see what I looked like.


Ha! There I am!

Alas, no pink hair for me - all the colour washed off in the shower.

I spent the rest of the day lounging by the pool. It did not even smell. Word on the street was that the pool area smelled, but the wind was in the right direction, because it didn't smell much at all. The slums on the other side of the hotel - they smell.

Woohai.