Jaunted

Festivals

India Update: Holi, Smoke?

March 15, 2006 at 10:00 AM | 0 Comments

As you can see, my companion Don and I both managed to find Holi, India's festival of colors. It took a bit of doing -- the embassy- and government-rich area around our hotel keeps things classy but also a little too sterile and spread out for a holiday like this. If you want to celebrate Holi in a public place here, it seems the place to be is Old Delhi, where the streets are windy and muddy, the storefronts are shoulder-to-shoulder, and Holi is taken seriously. As we wandered, we kept half an eye out for colored water coming from above. But when it came to the color being rubbed on us, we just went with it -- it gave everyone so much pleasure, and it made us so darn pretty.

One small warning: because we were guys, the festival was a lot easier to handle. Women are routinely molested as part of the "fun," and for Western women especially, it's better to check it out from above or from a distance. For everyone, pickpockets are a danger to keep in mind.

As I mentioned yesterday, cannabis-laced treats are a traditional accompaniment to the festival, regardless of whether or not the stuff is illegal in a particular area (as it happens to be in Delhi). Pot is smoked, sure, but the main form is bhang, mashed-up leaves and flowers.   That mixture gets thrown into lassis (yogurt-based shakes), candies, and especially into thandai, a sweet milky drink with almonds and rosewater. So integral is this last treat to Holi that the august Times of India printed the recipe for a "bhang ki thandai" on page two of the print edition today, along with lots of other advice. Rock.

Opium also makes an appearance in some versions of traditional sweets. Take gujia. Around Holi , these deep-fried dumplings filled with raisins and almond have been known to also get a hit of dope. As one Indian wryly observed to us, this kind of drug abuse tends to be self-limiting, since the dumpling-eaters tend to drift off to sleep soon after.

And what about us? Did we score? Our Spidey senses failed, but then we weren't trying too hard to get drug sweets. It was trippy enough being smeared over and over with color and then closely hugged -- twice -- by one stoned teenage Indian guy after another.
--John Rambow

Related Stories:
·   India Update: Holi [Jaunted]
·   Is Holi a Sleaze Affair? [Hindustan Times]
·   Holi 2006 Special [Hindustan Times]
·   A Word of Caution About Holi [Indiamike]