Originally Posted: January 23, 2015
I woke up on the morning of March 17th, 2014 more excited than I did on the morning of December 25th. Imagine waking up on Christmas morning as a 23 year old who’s never had the chance to celebrate a Christmas before. No sooner had my eyes opened than my feet hit the floor, ready for what could possibly be my most fun day in India. After showering, I put on my Holi clothes: a plain white tee and a pair of shiny white basketball shorts that I thought looked really cool in 10th grade. I walked into the living room where I met Apoorva and Aunty and together we filled the room with the smell of toast, Slice mango juice, and happy chatter about what the day would have in store.
Not my photo, this is what the bags of color looked like
First up on the docket was the Regency Park Apartment complex Party. Apoorva couldn’t help herself to build it up, and it didn’t disappoint! After breakfast we took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked outside. The concrete courtyard between the two main buildings, which was normally reserved for a few old people and an occasional dog walker, was brimming with party. Packed with color. Water. Noise. It’s just what I imagined, but wetter. 10 AM offered us a beautiful clear blue sky and a hot sun, and we were eager to take advantage of it.
There were children everywhere; old women, old men. Parents laughing and joyous voices blanketing the whole Park. The three of us navigated through the whirling sea of ecstatic youth and made our way to the center of it all. In front of us was a tower or balcony of sorts about 20-25 feet tall with a DJ on it pumping the jams. off to the left, obstructed from my view by the crowd, was a fire hose aimed vertically, launching a fat jet of water many stories high. While the water going up was a solid thunderous stream, it spread near it’s peak and returned, showering water indiscriminately on the Holi-ers.
There’s no nicer group of people than a pack of Indians “playing Holi,” as they called it. I was walking around the place with a bag of color, throwing it at kids, smearing it on people my age, and respectfully dabbing it on the elders. Throw one handful, take the playful return fire to the face as you reach for the next handful. It’s a cross between a block party, holiday, and what I imagine the Blue Man Group’s 9th birthday party would have been like. I don’t recall how, but I got my hands on one of the many waterguns kids were wielding and filled it in one of the massive tubs of colored water. Started blasting. The fun level rose steadily with the sun, but before we knew it we had to head back inside to get ready. That was the pre-party; a Holi appetizer.
We went inside, pretended to clean ourselves up, and met Dhruv. Vedanti and Rhea joined shortly after. The five of us had tickets procured via connections or something to this big Holi party at a big farm. I obviously knew the least about what was going to happen that day, but I’m intelligent enough to pick up on the fact that it was worth getting excited about. I was having trouble figuring out if this event we were going to was technically legal. It seemed like a legitimate event, what with professionally made tickets and a whole venue rented and all. On the other hand, the conversation on the way there trended on “I hope we don’t get caught.” The occasional thought of concern was quickly overruled by the two words that precede every great decision: “f*** it!”
Dhruv, Apoorva and I at the start of the Holi Cow Festival
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, and while I’ve included photos mixed into my story below, 30 frames per second means a LOT of words, so below is a video which captures the essence. This is Holi in all it’s glory – from Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Didn’t even spell check that. How’s my Hindi?
If you’re too lazy to check the clip, the easiest way for Americans to understand this Holi party is to just think miniature Indian Firefly Festival meets Color Run sans running.
“Holi Cow,” as the event was known, promised three things: color, music, and good times. There was food, a pool, a higher than normal concentration of fellow white people for some reason, a few different stages with many many different artists playing throughout the day, and “bhang.” I have to admit, the first few days I heard the word thrown around I thought Apoorva was saying pong in her standard Indian accent (see three/tdee). Turns out, it’s “bhang,” not pong, and instead a fun game of mini-hoops that I usually dominate, it refers to a beverage. Bhang is, from what I gathered, a milk-looking drink made with marijuana leaves, and EVERYONE drinks it on Holi. Yes… weed milk. After spending 40 minutes trying to find this place and driving down the bumpiest road we could find, the car slowed and we finally creeped into a crowd of Holi Cowers.
We passed through security, they gave each of us a lei, and we entered the compound. A stage and a large flat grassy lawn gave way to another lounge area. Around the massive bathroom and bar lines, we found the yard curving. On the left, an entrance in a wall from whence an endless stream of soaking wet people emerged, while other dry people waited to enter. The pool party zone, apparently. We followed the lawn around to the right, and found the food court area and another, much larger stage. Music from whatever band was performing filled the air. Anticipating a great chance of getting soaked and messy, we all put our phones in a plastic bag that someone hid or held onto, I don’t know and can’t remember. Anyway, it was just us, the immense potential to lose each other, and empty pockets.
Rhea and Vedanti before things got messy
The five of us!
We all made our way back to the gate in the wall, which opened up into a large pool party. On the left hand side of the pool was an in-pool bar you could swim up to, and opposite us, about 20 feet down a short hill from the pool was yet another small stage with a DJ on it playing random electro/techno/house/hip-hop. The color was endless, and the pool had turned a festive pinkish color. Throughout the day, it shifted through different reddish-pinkish-purple hues, depending on what the popular colors of the hour were. By the end of the day, it had lost its luster and shifted more in the direction of brown after so many colors had filled it. It also may have been a result of the mud pit in front of the DJ… Can’t tell if it was by design or purely accident, but water from the pool splashed down the hill all day, and the ravers in front of the DJ were constantly churning the ground to thick mud.
This is a tiny clip from the pool party of me jumping in, and one of the only videos I have from Holi Cow.
copyright Dhruv Kalra Photography. L to R – Apoorva’s back, Dhruv, Rhea, Crazy fun dude, rando rando rando not me more randos. Thanks for cropping me and Vedanti out of the shot Mr. Photo man.
Found this photo on the Holi Cow facebook page, I’m in the white shorts on the edge of the pool
The pool. There was some dude with a GoPro who kept asking me to do backflips into the pool. Still mad I can’t find his movie online anywhere
Dhruv looks like he’s had a little too much bhang
We did a lot of things, making one-day friends, splashing and cannonballing, going around to the different stages to dance to different types of what I would call Hindi-rock. Get it? Lame. Anyway, it was a few very different party feels all rolled into one, and could be most easily described as bliss.
The stage in front of the larger dance area had different bands playing all day.
Not my photo, just some DJ’s from a Holi Cow festival, although I think this was from 2010
One of the singers (photo copyright Dhruv Kalra) at the Festival we were at. Diggin the kermit look. She makes it look easy being green
There were different bands and artists performing on the stage all day, like the two DJs and singer above. Vedanti or Rhea knew someone in one of the bands, so part of the time was spent hanging backstage with the band. They seemed really chill, but given that I was the only person not smoking cigarettes (still super popular in India), I eventually took that time to go adventuring on my own. That didn’t last long though, as they caught up to me shortly after and we started dancing.
Apoorva got a little camera happy
And we were just happy
Had to show these clowns how to Rockette. Dhruv’s almost there. Vedanti is baffled
Not my photo, I just hope I get to celebrate Holi here one day.
Also not my photo, but it’s a beautiful one. Please forgive my use of the attractive woman staring seductively at the camera. The last time I set a really attractive woman as the link photo to the blog, my blog view stats for that post more than tripled the normal amount #facts. It’s good to know people come for my stories lol.
I’m gonna take credit for this photo, although Rhea may claim she took it
Apoorva and the selfies. Thank me for not putting up the 37 others.
The day slowed down after we had left the pool and had enough dancing by the second stage. We ended up laying in the grass in front of the much more chill hippie stage area and relaxed. We were tired and dehydrated and the slower music emanating from this stage was more tuned to what we needed by late afternoon. Eventually, we left with nothing but freshly squeezed lingering memories and a longing for a cool shower on our minds.
We’re beat. Slower jams on the first stage was a good place to relax
Eventually we partied ourselves out. We ate some pizza, the others indulged in their weed-milk (and no, I did not partake). Come to think of it, I didn’t DD either, because to be honest, a native Indian high as a kite still probably has a better chance of making it home safely than an American driving a vehicle on those streets. I don’t know if I blogged about it already but I drove once while in India and that was enough.
Hippies doing their thang. This guy was a REALLY good cover musician
Apoorva likes selfies
Long after becoming content that we had gotten our money’s worth from this little gem of a festival, we went home. We showered immediately, and although I have no photos from the rest of the day, I’m sure it involved a much needed nap and some chai. :)