Popagandhi

Or happy festival of colours, happy dolyatra, happy boshonto utsav, whatever suits your fancy.

One of the things I really love about living in Singapore is the diversity: of languages, races, religions, even the diversity within each race and religion. Today’s Holi celebration at Farrer Park was organized by the Bhojpuri Society, but Indians of every stripe came; along with their Nepali friends, plenty of Chinese (like myself), with our African and Caucasian friends in tow. The point was to sling coloured dye at each other, and to get as dirtily colourful as possible. The field was waterlogged from hours of heavy rain prior, but it didn’t matter — turn on the Hindi dance music, empty packets of dye on your friends, and run away screaming from the kids with the SuperSoakers full of… dye.

with Ram and Pushpinder

with part of SMU’s largest foreign community: the Indians! (excluding you, Giselle)

And this is what you end up with. An evening of fun, waterlogged bhangra dancing, and yearning for that country. The sight of a Chinese girl sitting in a Little India cornershop downing chai and Kingfisher beer intermittently attracted as much attention as it should — the random strangers coming up to say, Happy Holi, because I too was… pink, red, green, yellow, and blue, all at the same time (on my face, hands, arms, back, ass, shirt, shorts, slippers)… was quite something to behold. One day I will have a proper Holi in India, but for now, this works, too.

The conspiracy to dump brown dye all over me so as to take a picture with the caption, “I’m finally Indian”, didn’t work — they didn’t have brown dye, so I was spared. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any bhang at the Singapore event. ;)

More Holi Videos here