Celebrate Holi in India

“The girls were incredibly excited that volunteers had come to celebrate Holi with them. We headed up to the rooftop and the colour fest began! Initially, the scene was relatively calm as everyone grabbed a pinch of colour to wish people "Happy Holi" and smear a bit of powder on cheeks or foreheads. Once the first person doused a friend's entire head in bright pink, the chaos began. Running around, holding little bags of powder, we tried to cover each girl and each volunteer in as many colours as possible.”

“When everyone was sufficiently multi-coloured from head to toe, and the powders had run out, the girls decided it was a good idea to spray everyone with buckets of cold water. You know, so that the colours all mix together and become mud brown. Once all the girls were soaked, they started chasing the volunteers with the large buckets of water. It was definitely a mess and we were very thankful we had celebrated on the rooftop and not inside the boarding home.”

“When the volunteers returned to the guesthouse, we scrubbed and scrubbed until most marks of Holi were removed from our skin and hair. However, the newspaper articles hadn't adequately prepared us for what happens to blonde or light brown hair. Many of us ended up with pink and red streaks, which stayed with us for another week; evidence that we had had a wonderful time celebrating the festival of colours.”

“By the late afternoon I was completed exhausted (something which the more suspicious of us attributed to the sedative-like quality of the paint) and suitably caked in a layer of brownish/purple paint. Nevertheless, at 4pm on the dot I stubbornly marched outside, with no particular purpose in mind but to taste my freedom and make a point. I was immediately confronted with a street I did not recognise; it was eerily quiet and completely deserted except for a group of around five blurry-eyed men on motorcycles all staring in my direction. Needless to say, I soon lost confidence in my ability to take care of myself and sheepishly made my way back to the safe cocoon of my hostel.”