bhang thandai festival festival of colours Holi holidays Indian holidays

Yup you read that right folks.  For those of you unfamiliar with ‘Holi’, it is a popular spring festival, also known as the 'Festival of Colour' which is celebrated across India as well as in countries across the globe that have an Indian population.

I’ve been in India for 3 years now – but only celebrated once back in 2009 and that turned out to be a bit of a colourfornication event ! Last year I decided to avoid the celebrations altogether as it turns out as much as it was fun to go let loose and go a bit mad with friends, I really didn’t like the part where I had to keep scrubbing myself raw to get the colours off my skin !!

This year a few of us decided that we were going to go out and celebrate.  Now I’ve never had bhang’ before and decided that I MUST try it this year.  Bhang is made out of the cannabis plant and normally mixed with cold milk and served.  My mate NB & I went off to this temple (yup it’s available at temples) in Babulnath and found ourselves walking into this lane (in tiny shorts mind you) to an old aunty who was selling them out of plastic bags !

Turned out to be a bit of a mental party at someone’s apartment garden in Worli.  For a house party event – it was fabulously done and the event planner in me couldn’t help but smile and congratulate the hostess for a really great party.

There was a ‘gola’ (flavoured ice) bar; a ‘bhang’ bar stocked with hash brownies (yes it’s the only time of the year that this is legal in India); the alcohol bar; the food station; a kick ass DJ;  a small wading pool filled with coloured water and a 15 x 15 flat tent to give shelter from the sun.

            

Now in all of the fun & merriment of the day – turns out that I was the only one who wasn’t ‘buzzing’ in any way from the copious amounts of ‘bhang thandai’ (a concoction of cold milk, almond, spices & cannabis) and  hash brownies that I had consumed.  How sad is that ??

Although I was told by my friends who were getting their buzz on that I should be grateful that I was not seeing my life unfold as a film reel and that I wasn’t seeing religious scriptures on the walls that eventually led to paranoia.

Hope you all had a Happy Holi if you were celebrating !!

colours dancing drinking festival festival of colours friends google holidays internet interpretations people reflections social thoughts vodka

Before starting this post, I must give credit where it's due. Over the past few weeks I had been looking at organizing a 'Holi Party' and had come across a post on UltraBrown which was aptly titled and I feel it captures the essence of my post.

For those of you that don't know what 'Holi' is a popular spring festival, also known as the 'Festival of Colour' which is celebrated across India as well as in countries across the globe that have an Indian population. (If you would like to know more then check out Wikipedia)

I have only ever celebrated the traditional Holi once before, in Dubai and that was years ago (feels like another lifetime ago) when I was barely 12 or 13 years old.

Here I am in Mumbai and have now experienced 2 days of 'Holi' and it's been a colourful journey. I had made plans to head out of town originally but due to lack of committment from some of the group - I cancelled those plans and headed to the Zoom TV Party which is apparently ranked quite high up on the social calender.

I must stress that Holi is not something that is played across in the evening; it is a 'day event' which means the music, the dancing, and throwing of colours, water guns, coloured-water balloons - all come out from about 10 a.m onwards !

Such is the popularity of this festival, it's the one day of the year, that the typically conservative Indian population shun away their inhibitions and just 'let go' ! The public goes a bit insane - people are pelting each other with water balloons; wetting each other's clothes to transparency (oh I forgot to mention, traditionally everyone wears white); smother coloured powder (nowadays it is organic) - the whole time getting drunk on 'bhang' which is a milky cocktail of hemp/cannabis and buttermilk !!! Everyone - uncles, aunties, kids, your neighbour even - are getting intoxicated on this day !

I was with a group of four friends, and we made our way to this stunning bungalow on the other side of the city and made our grand entry in 'all white ensembles' and 'water guns' for protection and sure enough, within a few minutes - we were sprinkled with coloured powder that was floating in the air. Luckily we decided to cross the threshold and just dab a handprint of each other on our outfits before any merry-men decided to do so instead !

The party was pretty good - there was make-shift dance area set up with trusses around that were sprinkling water - actually spraying would be the right word - on the masses of writhing bodies in the centre. The Dj was playing all the peppy hindi songs that are popular over Holi; and of course the bar was flowing !!! Imagine that - it's a Wednesday afternoon and everyone was drinking Vodka and Beer - not to mention the 'thandai' (minus the hemp)

My crew got themselves a mini-massages that was being offered at the party - good thing too as they were applying oil on everyone's head for the head-massage. I was smart - and had lathered myself with baby oil and coconut oil (yes even my hair ! I can't believe I went out like that!!)

We were actually really good sports - and doused ourselves in colour and even got under the water spray !! Lots of drinking, lots of dancing; and trekking across the mass mud-pits that kept forming and getting larger in size throughout the day. It was an afternoon of letting go of oneself; not caring a damn about how one looked; and just going a bit silly with the music and the madness all around !!

Thank the Lord for giving me Google which allowed me to find out how to protect myself from the colour stains !

diwali festival fireworks lights people perceptions thoughts

"Deepawali" (also transliterated as "deepaawaLi") literally means a row of lamps (Sanskrit "deepa" = lamp and "aawaLi" = row, line). In due course, the popular name has shortened to Diwali, especially in northern India. While Deepavali is popularly known as the "festival of lights", a more appropriate significance is "the new year of luck and wealth" and it is celebrated with a variety of fireworks.

During the week prior and post Diwali, the city is full of lights … star lights lining the trees and buildings; and if you look towards the heavens, the dark skies are lit up with various colours – courtesy of the fireworks. Some of them are really truly quite spectacular and a visual treat for those who have never really experienced this before.

Having moved to India last year – I didn't quite experience 'Diwali' – so this year – I wanted to see what the big deal was and why everyone was so into it. Don't get me wrong – the concept and idea behind the festival and celebration is great (there's a lot history on this – so you might want to Google it or hit Wikipedia) but for the life of me – I couldn't and still can't understand why we would need to celebrate with such environmental harmful elements !!! and for a prolonged period of almost 2 weeks. I can get that for the first 3-4 days of the festival – people are celebrating … but after that … why use fireworks ??

It's bad enough that a city such as Mumbai is already heavily polluted and over populated. The city for me became almost unbearable during the week of Diwali due to the sheer nonsense I kept experiencing when out and about. Of course I admired the fireworks and also oohed & aahed at some of them … but really most of the time I just kept jumping in my car seat every time I heard an explosion !! This is NOT a good thing when one is actually sitting behind the wheel of a car !!! There were a few times when I got quite jumpy after seeing an explosion of light barely 2 feet away from me (and I almost hit the car in front of me) !!

As beautiful and in keeping with the spirit of the festival the fireworks are – I really don't see much sense in the excessive use of them. I noticed this more-so after taking a few videos of the firework displays on one of the main streets overlooking the water – known as Marine Drive. The after effects of fireworks are enough to give one reason to visit the doctors for a lung check-up !! There's just so much smoke everywhere and the fumes as well, not to mention the mess people leave behind on the streets or pathways where they play with the fireworks. Have a look at the video I took on Diwali day, it shows some really pretty displays but if you pay close attention you see all the smoke drifting across the skies :(

If that's not bad enough – the other day I was sitting with a friend on Marine Drive and we saw this family pull out of the car – Father, Mother, Grandma, and two twin girls – probably no more than 5 years old .. sweet right ? nice family outing … then I saw the huge bin bag the father was carrying and proceeding to empty out onto the 'seats' made along the divider. It was just left me a bit gob-smacked that here comes a family with a bag full of fireworks (even though festivities stopped last week!) and were just going to sit around and entertain their children with this. So I began to wonder – why couldn't they have done that within their own building / house with the rest of the people in the city. To be fair – I even thought that perhaps the kids were sick the previous week and perhaps that's why it was small private show for them.

Now to the amusing part of it all … the father and mother went about lighting sparklers, small rockets, and twisters on the ground whilst the twins … they just showed No Interest whatsoever in what their parents were doing. The grandma was just sitting there trying to engage one of the twins to at least hold the sparkler in her hand and twirl it around ! I only got around to capturing the below on video about 15-20 minutes AFTER they'd arrived so it may not have the impact I want it to have .. but it's well worth watching (and hearing my commentary if I say so myself heheh)

The point I guess that I'm trying to make is that - the fireworks look great for a few minutes but have we ever really given a thought to the consequences our natural environment faces after those few minutes ? In the above example - was it really necessary for the parents to continue lighting up fireworks for almost 45 minutes when their children were not really quite 'into it' ?

Fireworks take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials such as confetti. Fireworks produce smoke and dust that may contain residues of heavy metals, sulfur-coal compounds and some low concentration toxic chemicals. These by-products of fireworks combustion will vary depending on the mix of ingredients of a particular firework. (check google for more info).

There are various concerns about the effects of fireworks - but hey - who pays attention to them when used for a celebration right !!

Pollutants from fireworks raise concerns because of potential health risks associated with hazardous by-products. People suffering from asthama or multiple chemical sensitivity the smoke from fireworks may aggravate existing health problems. Environmental pollution is also a concern because heavy metals and other chemicals from fireworks may contaminate water supplies and because fireworks combustion gases might contribute to such things as acid rain which can cause vegetation and even property damage.

The most obvious and undisputed fact is that fireworks leave behind a considerable amount of solid debris, including both readily biodegradable components as well as non degradable plastic items. Concerns over pollution, consumer safety, and debris have restricted the sale and use of consumer fireworks in many countries. However it doesn't appear to be a restriction placed on the Indian consumers within India :(