Happy holi!

Today was one of the days we have been most looking forward to since arriving in India...

Holi is a festival celebrated by Hindus, also known as the festival of colours. It’s celebrated at the end of the winter season and the start of spring, falling on the last full moon day of the lunar month. It also has a religious purpose although despite asking I’m still not too clear on what it is!

In a word... nuts! 

The day started with a rock throwing competition where the Gurkha’s showed their athletic prowess by beating everyone else by some distance.

Then we went to their block for the main event – three hours of drinking, pasting colours over each other, water bombs, music and food. There are no rules so chucking buckets of water over your boss is perfectly acceptable. Hence I was able to soak Helen without getting into too much trouble, ;-)

I feel sorry for whoever has to clean up

We’re all dried off now and after having a long shower and swim I still have a nice purple streak on the side of my face – its apparently going to take lots of scrubbing and time to come off! 

On a slightly more worrying note – H just pointed out in the local paper that some of the holi colours use asbestos powder as a base... see nuts!

Bring on next year... I'm already eyeing up my weapon!

http://www.firebox.com/product/794/Waterbomb-Catapult