Jaipur - Holi He Holi He

We arrived in the pink city, and going through the same process as in each airport of getting a prepaid cab, we were assigned Hanuman, who would become our driver for the days to come.
We arrived in our hotel, an old heritage palace, white marbled floors everywhere, a ancient demeure of some maharaja, exhausted by the trip. Traveling in India is easy but distances are incomparable to what we are used to.
The next day Hanuman took us to visit the old pink city, for pink it is, the walls of Jaipur stand pink all around it and no other color of construction is allowed within the walls.
The feel is different here less traffic then in New Delhi yet more beggars more people sleeping on the streets more dirt, cows walking around, open pavements, unfinished streets, traffic, bicycles, tuc tucs, wholes in the streets, sandy roads, yet an amazing atmosphere and beauty none the less.
We visited Jantar Mantar, the observatory, a set of fascinating astrological devices built about three centuries ago and capable of giving the time up to an accuracy of two seconds, astrological signs, calculating ascendants etcetera.
The city palace with its Guiness World Record Silver recipients, our small blond Maharadja acting out due to lack of sleep cut our visit short, nevertheless after buying Matthew a brand new pair of 'adidoss' for one Euro eighty Cents, we had an amazing meal at a vegan restaurants, in doubt of what to order we delighted ourselves with a thali.
A much needed siesta and of to the elephant show we went.
What seemed to be a full on tourist attraction turned out to be a blessing that would culminate tomorrow into an amazing experience.
We walked around the polo grounds looking at the colorful elephants some with painted nails others dressed in jeans others still with a young kid dressed up as a Maharadja on its back. Some people were fully painted in color a sign of the start of the Holi or festival of colors. We avoided being colored for at least ninety minutes until........ .

An eclectic mix of foreigners from all over the globe and Indians, elephants, costumes, music, and colors, smiling eyes and faces all over, one of the two pictures you took someone was asking for a baksheesh for letting him take your picture while the poorest would let you take their picture for free. One common thing amongst anyone you take a picture of here being it the upper class or the street bum, they are all proud when you ask them to take a picture of them.

Amongst the crowd and us being far beyond trying to stay uncolored we met Mookesh (forgive me if I spelled it wrong) and his family after talking to them for a while and the kids playong together Mookesh promptly, out of the blue, invited us to share Holi with them the next day at their house. We exchanged phone numbers, well I took his and without getting comited we told him we would call and let him know.
People a the hotel had warned us about Holi being dangerous outside of the hotel so we were apprehensive about meeting up with Mookesh, not so much about the family but about the whereabouts the food we would receive, the water, the getting there, the coming back, the drunk people on the road......., a bunch of excuses based on fear partially made up by our wild imagination partly due to the hotel staff probably wanting us to stay in for consumption reasons.
We decided to go ahead and do what I was dreaming of meet an Indian family and getting invited for Holi.
I am a firm believer that things don't just happen and thus if this man invited us on an event in the middle of a crowd of thousands this must be something of significance.
To go even a step further into how the wheel of faith sometimes just runs like a clock our taxi driver whom I told yesterday to spend Holi with his kids insisted on picking us up this morning.

So of to Mookesh and his family we went dressed in white, perfectly white immaculate pants and shirts.

We where greated by Mookesh and the family as if we were family,

the kids got instantly sprayed with colored water, we received a more modest welcome by mens of color being aplyed on the forehead and a hug, before being smeared much les modestly all over the face with color. The purple colored corn flower we had brought looked pale next to the fuchsia, neon green, crimson read and safran yellow already there.

What went on next was beyond what we expected. Everyone proceeded for the next three hours in smearing eachother with colored powder spraying each other with colored water, hugging, each other, blowing powder on each other basically making a mess a colored mess. All this in joy and happiness and fun, kids on adults, kids on kids, no matter how old or young. You can do anything on Holi it is ok you will be forgiven.
The neighboring kids coming In and out to play Holi. Matthew was going bananas with the other kids and Djudju took a while to get used to the craze but joined it after a while never the less.
We started feeling like geese being stuffed with food from the day we arrived, all kinds of salty and sweet pastries, samosas, spongy sweet cakes, spicy drinks. I told Mookesh we would roll back out of the house if he continued stuffing us.
The color playing toned down and we continued talking while the kids were jumping of the cupboards on to the bed having a blast.
The women dissapeared into the kitchen to come out with a feast of a meal, everything was delicious, the rice the curry the potatoes the poori a mixture of smells and taste a real feast.
We left this Indian family and all of us got really emotional, we were welcomed here nothing short of family and I believe that we accepted and were open to that in such a way that we realy fell like family when we left. I never had the feeling we just met a few hours ago amongst a crowd of many just out of the blue.
Again my believe in a higher power and a greater good is reinforced through the kindness of this man who took us in to celebrate Holi the Festival of Colors as one family.

!!!Holi He Holi He !!!









For pictures of Mother India through my lens click here...