Holi is a great holiday! I wish we had it in the US. It reminded me of being younger and having water fights with my brothers and cousins in the back yard.
For a few days before holi, there were stalls on the street selling every imaginable color of powder paint, as well as masks, hats and squirt guns. On Tuesday night, the night before Holi, Lauren and I bought little bags of six colors of paint. Originally, Holi was played with only pink and red powder paint, but now it is played with virtually every color, and with water and liquid paints as well.
On Wednesday morning, I had to go out to buy milk for breakfast. I had no idea what I would find. I dressed in clothes I had decided to sacrifice to Holi: a white t-shirt (all the better to see the colors) and some blue scrubs. I walked outside and the streets were splattered with all colors of paint. There were paint-drenched children running about, chasing eachother. People mix the powdered paint with water in buckets and then squirt it at eachother. Its much more permanent when wet. As I was nearing the main road, a man and his son walked by (they were both purple from head to toe) and said to me, "return!" meaning, "don't go out, you'll get painted!" I smiled and continued on my way. Lots of people eyed me uncertainly in my pristine garb. They clearly wanted to paint me, but didn't have the nerve. My luck changed when I passed one of the paint stalls. A vendor called out to me, "good morning, ma'am!" and then got me full in the face with pink powder. Another vendor tagged the back of my head with yellow. I didn't even try to resist.
Nearly all of the shops were closed (except for a few essentials, like the dairy store), and the streets were nearly deserted. (Consider the fact that I live in India, one of the most densely populated places on earth. There were not many people out, relatively speaking.) Everyone who was out was painted in some way. Many people just had a few streaks of red on their face, to prevent the attacks they would get if they weren't painted at all. Kind of like how people wear green on St Patrick's Day.
On my way home, after getting painted by the vendors, I was suddenly fair game for everyone to hit me. A few boys squirted me near the flat. I gave the milk to Lauren, went back outside and hit them with orange paint before running back inside.
Nienke, Lauren and I decided to wait until the afternoon to go out and play. This ended up being a mistake. As it turns out, most of the playing goes on in the morning. We got all ready by putting on lots of lotion and oil so the paint would wash off easily. When we went out in the afternoon, the streets were completely deserted. Had we gone out in the morning, we could have played with the neighborhood children, but we missed out chance. When we went out, we played just between the three of us. We got thoroughly covered despite our small numbers.
We went back inside to clean up before the kids came over to say bye to Lauren (she left early this morning). When the kids came, it was apparent they had been playing all day. We had been forbidden by Subhamita to go to Prativa's house to play with them. She said it would not be safe for us. I don't know how true that is, I think she was more concerned about the perception of CRAWL with the volunteers running around acting crazy. Anyway, most of the kids were slightly discolored, but Binda hadn't yet washed. She was bright pink!
The kids brought cards and a few gifts (sweets and a windchime) for Lauren. It was really sweet. I was surprised by their lack of sentimentality. Lauren had been here for four months, and the kids really liked her. But they did not appear upset by her departure. I know they are very used to people coming in and out all the time, and they have become desensitized to people leaving as a way to protect themselves. But I guess I still expected a little more emotion than they showed.
The kids had told us that they would come play Holi with us on Thursday, but as they were leaving Wednesday night, they said they couldn't come. (Bengali Holi was on the 11th, Hindustani Holi on the 12th. The government of West Bengal gave the holiday for the 11th, but CRAWL had both days off) Nienke and I decided that we would just go get the kids on Thursday, and tell them to come play with us.
As it turned out, there was no need. Whether they actually changed their minds, or whether they had said they weren't coming just to trick us, I don't know, but at about 10:30 this morning, they showed up at our door. Nienke and I had just finished breakfast (Lauren left around 6:45 am) and were still in our pajamas. I hadn't even put my contacts in yet. Piya stood at the gate and I immediately shied away. "No color!" They shouted. They said they had just come to return my hat. Nienke and I were not so easily fooled. We hastily changed into our Holi clothes from the day before, and gathered our paint. This time we did not think about lotion or oil. We went outside and immediately began throwing paint. Some of the students fought back (they had all brought their own paint with them) and some scattered. I chased some of them out to the main road, but lost sight of them (I still was not wearing contacts). Arati joined me and told me where they had gone. We cornered Kajal and Prativa in a side alley and blasted them. Then we all ran back towards the flat, still throwing and ducking paint. The people on the street were quite amused to see colorfully painted white girls sprinting down the street after little (equally colorfully painted) Indian children. Remember, for most people here Holi was already over. It's a one day holiday, and we were a day late. We continued playing and fighting outside the flat, and eventually a crowd of my neighbors grew. We were creating quite a bit of noise. People were staning in windows and on porches to watch. There were about 15 men and boys gathered at the end of the lane. One of my neighbors (whose anniversary party I went to) stepped out of his house to watch. I spotted him and tossed some paint at him, giving him a light sprinkling of red. He looked a little taken aback, but mostly amused. I'm still afraid he will try to get me back before the day is over.
One man came up to me and poured some of his left-over green metallic paint in one of my hands, and water in the other. I got three students with it.
We took lots of photos, and then eventually went inside to clean up. The girls managed to splatter red water everywhere, and so I spent the next few hours after they left cleaning. It was totally worth it though. It was so much fun!
Modern Holi paint is said to be extremely toxic, containing all sorts of harmful chemicals and sometimes even glass and fiberglass. Only the traditional abir paint is definitely safe. When we bought our paint, the vendor told me it was all abir, but I had no way to know if he was telling the truth. So far, I haven't had any reactions, but many people have told me that they always get a rash after Holi. I was surprised by how easily the paint washed off though. Dry paint washes much easier than wet though, and yesterday's oil and lotion made the job easy. Today we played harder and without the oil, so it didn't wash as well. I got the paint almost completely off, except my palms and the bottoms of my feet are still bright pink. I don't mind it though. I'm just happy I don't have a green face.
I'll put pictures up soon.
~m
