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 !!

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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 !