holi mackanaw

Today is Holi – quite possibly the best holiday EVER. I’m not entirely sure of its provenance, but any holiday that involves massive water fights and throwing coloured powder at friends, family and perfect strangers is fine by me. In fact, Holi is right up there with Hallowe’en for holidays I love.

In honour of my visit, Thaba decided to host a Holi party. This takes me back to the old days, when Thaba and I would host truly EPIC parties in university. Yes, gentle reader, we ‘re getting ready to party like it’s 1993 at Clark Hall Pub. I don’t normally have my first G&T at 10 am, but hey, when in New Delhi…

A little bit after noon, Ji and I decide to venture out from beyond the walls and see what was happening in the neighbourhood. Knowing that it might be a bit of an adventure, we took before and after photos. We returned home about half an hour later, drenched and covered in day-glo powder. I guess on account of the fact we’re both foreigners, the neighbours were very kind in confirming that we were indeed playing Holi.

My favourite part of the expedition was a day-glo red Ji Hong saying, “Well, Auntie Anne, these holi colours would be all natural, wouldn’t they?” While there is a booming market in organic Holi colours, there was nothing natural about the stuff we were covered in from head to toe. My hair is a slightly darker blonde now with a decidedly pink undertone.

Naps were in order after that initial round Holi, which was really just a warm up for our own holiday party here at 97 Golf Links. If plenty of food (including the best samosas I’ve ever tasted) and four types of gin (in the city of Djinns, no less) doesn’t say PART-TAY to you, well, you probably aren’t friends with anyone associated with fixedaddress.com. But alas, I digress. Again…

Guests started to arrive at 3 pm and by 3:20 the festivities were in full swing. (No Indian Standard Time here.) Imagine thirty people, from little kids to adults - two to sixty, to be exact - running around like lunatics with water guns, buckets of water and packs of gulal (the aforementioned coloured powder). Think of Holi as a national water fight day, with rainbow special effects (courtesy of the gulal) and you have a good idea of just how RIDICULOUSLY fun Holi is. Hopefully, Thaba can post some photos. I’m okay with words, but that old adage about the picture being worth a thousand words is an understatement when it comes to Holi.
It is now just before 8 pm in Delhi and we’re all getting ready for bed. It was that kind of crazy good. A plan is now in the making to bring Holi to the countryside house this summer. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

[On the road-12-March-2009]