India - Holi, day 14

Today was the festival of colors, called "Holi". Shrawan (one of Toms assistants, male) came to pick us up along with one of his friends Satish. They both rode motorcycles. I took the backseat of Satishes motorcycle.

Riding on a motorbike in this traffic is an experience in itself. Seriously - the videos do not convey even the half of it. Nevertheless, I took a few more today, as at least one of my friends mentioned she has been looking at the traffic videos quite avidly.

We arrived at the house of one of Shrawans friends and started celebrating the festival. Its kind of like valentines day except instead of giving your friend a card, you rub paint all over him/her, soak him with coloured water and then crack a few fresh eggs open on top of his head. Yep - it really was just like that, and truly fun just as you can imagine. The paint was not synthetic (as they have celebrated this festival for hundreds of years) and so they threw it in the face and everywhere else as well. We were, thankfully, warned to wear old clothes, and I also wore a headscarf to protect my dreads (and kindly asked people not to crack eggs on my head.. which they complied with). There are loads of photographs of their family along with me and Dave. The pictures are in picasaweb (or will be soon). The festivities took place on the street, and the people driving by did not let themselves be bothered by it. In fact, a fair number of them also had their faces and clothes in a bit unusual colours.

We then went to the house of Shrawans sister and then covered his brother-in-law in green paint. They then served us lunch, which was quite spicy but very good nonetheless. That was all the way on the other side of the city, and the long bike ride on the inner-city highways and later through the small streets was just as enjoyable. So was the ride back. Final stop before going back to Tom's was the busky (a slum), where three other Toms assistants live. Again, we all got soaking wet and swiped with paint. As it is quite chilly in the shade (when you are soaked), we danced a little to warm up and stop shivering. Public dancing seems to be a thing mainly men do together (for bonding purposes). However, once I got over my homophobia, however, it was quite cool.

By the way, not all of the paint comes with water and soap. So now, after a shower, I look:
a) like Na'vi from the Avatar movie
b) like I had a very bad case of sunburn
c) like I was just beaten up.

Today was the most fun I have had since coming here. Its good to just completely let go and do something senseless every now and then.

Which reminds me - I should try to get some practice in with the scooter now that its working again :)

Edit: (2 hrs later) I drove the scooter around in the parking lot some more and realized that I have gotten the basics more or less down now. I told Tom that I thought I was ready to take it out to the streets and asked him whether he would like to come and supervise me the first time there. "Most certainly not", he replied, "But if you are going out, we need some eggs and milk. There's a store just up the hill and then down the hill along the curvy road that should be open." Well.. the milk and eggs are in the refrigerator now. Thankfully the trip was quite straightforward.

Edit: (6 hrs later) I took the scooter once more, this time to go visit Pat (head of another charity here in Hyderabad) to help her set up her new computer screen. Also got some reading in before that.