Holi Festival started last nite with a ceremonial burning of a pyre. We stayed on the beach as late as we could last nite but couldn't last for the bonfire. There were tens of thousands of people on the beach. The sun had taken its toll on us. We left at about 10, knowing we would miss the fire. So this morning after breakfast we headed back to the beach to see what was happening. The fire was still burning.
People were again starting to congregate on the beach. We had a beautiful breeze and strolled along for about an hour passing a few scrum cricket matches and a couple meditating.
After an hour or so, more people started to come to the beach and throw colours. We asked if we could take their picture. They were delighted but insisted that we join them and get painted first.
Donna was feeling like a local. With our faces painted everyone greeted us with smiles and a Happy Holi.
It was getting hot, so we decided to leave the beach and go to a show. There was a movie theatre about a 10 minute tuk tuk ride from the hotel and it was playing an English language film, "300 : Rise of an Empire".
At 1:30 we had finished the movie and by that time the streets were full of colourful people. With parties going on everywhere, we decided to return to the hotel, change and get back to the beach. This time, it was jammed with a couple of hundred thousand, all splashed with colour and enjoying the waves. It didn't take us long to get painted up again; we didn't take the camera for fear of lens damage but Donna needed a shower when we arrived back to our room.
The colour takes a couple of days to completely disappear so our faces are still a bit spotted but as everyone says "when in Rome".
India is a country in transition especially in its view of women. Please note the following.
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