Holi Moley! Posted on March 27th, 2005 by Becky Arbin

Happy Easter! Yesterday, it was Happy Holi! I holed up in our program house due to rumors of terrorising that goes on during this holiday, starting on Friday. Friday evening, a gang of young boys, some with drums and others with flaming sticks, knocked on gates down the road, demanding money. It’s like evil trick-or-treating. We sent Mike out to lock the gate, then shut off all the lights and locked the doors.

From the roof, I peeked over the edge and watched as the boys milled around, knocking on the gate and shouting. The man who lives above us in the house, Daniel, has been in Varanasi for about 8 years. He says that this part of Holi reminds him of the Nazis rounding up Jews in the ghetto. Indeed, it did resemble Schindler’s List… I felt very scared, hoping the bigger boys wouldn’t climb over the fence and steal our shoes or trash our bikes.

The following morning, the neighborhood children were out in a group, this time armed with bottles and scoops filled with dyed water. They wanted us to join, and after lots of pleading they convinced us to come. They supplied us with some powder so we too could have soemthing to pour on them, and then three of us ran screaming into the street, throwing water around, drenching each other, and turning into what looked to me like the Jazz Singer, the face and hands and arms a bluish black.

I went back inside after about five or ten minutes, while my friends stayed out for nearly a half hour. Both are still pink, after a few dozen showers. It was great fun, this part of Holi.

That afternoon, I ventured out again on a scooter with Jo. I wanted to get some macaroni for lunch, but NOTHING was open. It was a ghost town, just a few people walking along. A drunk guy staggered down the main street, buck naked, but all others seemed normal. We finally found an open store, and I got some snacks to last through the day.

We played a long game of Scrabble and then joined the legions who were out, wearing brand spanking new clothes, paying calls to neighbors, family members and friends. It felt funny to wear a salwar again, I’ve fallen out of the habit of wearing Indian style clothes over the past weeks. Those darn dupattas are sooooo bothersome.

So there are some freaky parts of Holi which must be avoided (I did not attend a party on Holi night because of the reputation of people being harrassed) but others are great fun, like the paint fight and paying calls to friends. We were fed sweets for dinner last night, and we were painted again with dry tikka powder by dozens of little neighbors.

In other news, my thesis is officially done! I burned it onto a disc so I needn’t worry about floppy discs conking out. What a great accomplishment! I feel great, putting so much time and effort into this thing and then finally getting done with something I can be really proud of.

In a way, I think that is one of the main reasons why my study abroad experience is so great. Sure, Varanasi is the hardest place to live I’ve ever been to, and I don’t plan on ever spending considerable time here again. I’d surely return to show it to someone close to me who’d like to see India, but it’s definitely not a place that I’d choose to live.

The short-term bad parts are outweighed by the pride I feel at doing my undergraduate thesis here, despite all the setbacks, as well as lots of new things I learned about the third world and India.

When I hear about people studying abroad in cities with McDonald’s or places where they haven’t gotten smoker’s cough just by breathing toxic air, I feel both insanely jealous and hard core. India IS a hard-core country, somewhere that tests you in many ways. Physically and mentally, India has brought me to new lows and highs. I don’t know if I LOVE India or HATE it. I love parts, I hate parts.

Hope you’re doing well in your cooler (temperature-wise) part of the world. Namaste!