"Holi" Cow!

I was so sad to say good bye to Mother Ganga and Rishikesh. A group of us travelled to Dharmasala; a Tibetan community far in the Himalayas and home to the Dalai Lama. H.H. is currently giving his Spring teachings and ten days worth of lectures. Elke, with her German punctuality and efficiency booked us train tickets and reserved a few rooms for a group of us. God bless her. There was one minor glitch, we were travelling on Holi, one of the numerous Hindu festivals. http://www.thecolorsofindia.com/. It was one of the funniest things I have seen! On the first day of Holi or the full moon day, colored powder known as 'gulal' and colored water is mixed. As a good omen, the eldest male member of the family sprinkle colors from the hali and lota on each member of the family. People light huge bonfires at community grounds to commemorate the burning of Holika. As the fire burns brighter, people perform folk songs and drums on the rhythmic beats of the drums around the bonfires and ask the blessings of the holy fire. People run around town smearing each other's faces and bodies with colored powder and launch water balloons at each other. You don't really have a choice as to whether or not you want to participate. If you in public, you are part of Holi. Everyone sings and screams "Happy Holi". The dye is pretty strong so we all knew in advance to wear old clothes. When Elke was booking our tickets we were told Holi was on the 14th, not 15th. Always ask an Indian at least twice for directions, time and dates/events. I've have started to get a better understanding/appreciation for Indian time during my attempt to learn Hindi; tomorrow and yesterday both mean the same thing, electricity goes out enough that each clock tells a different time depending on where you are, but best of all; generally they don't care. It's great! Two days ago, I was with a friend and I look at the clock to see what time it was and I couldn't tell if it was 2:30 or 3:30! It was sooo funny. I was really struggling to tell time. This is the way life should be! The group picture is of a group of friends I was with, I didn't end up taking my camera around too much since everything got ruined from dye or water balloons. Luckily our train was at night and most of the festivities were over.