Painting the Town Magenta

It's difficult to write about Holi in India without sounding like a grumpy old grandma, which of course I am at times anyway but still....perhaps I am just jealous because the only time that dancing in the street is allowed in Pushkar (without repatriation being involved) is during the Holi festival. But you would have to be Mad to go!
Holi is one of those things that everyone who knows anything about India knows. Its right up there with the Taj Mahal and the Diwali Festival of lights and like most spectacles in India, it makes for a colorful sight. The basic premise of Holi is that it is a celebration of good over evil, a spring festival and a time for strengthening bonds and brotherhood.

What happens is that in the morning kids are racing around with water pistols full of paint colored water or packets of the toxic mix. The older boys are inside getting out of it on bhang or (shhh!) alcohol and then they also take to the streets. Women are not to be seen except at their doorways supervising the young-uns, making sure they don't get stampeded by any of the rushing gangs of out of control youths that run the streets like bulls.
In Pushkar they dance on the streets in the main market and tourists fresh from their dance floor moves in Goa turn up to show their exotic style to the locals. One of the things about being a tourist is that you can join in on local festivals with all the enthusiasm of a child and forget that you are a grown up.

But is it safe? Says one young woman
My guide book says no, says another one.
The guide book was right, no Indian female over the age of 14 is outside during the running of the Holi Bulls. Lucky for the local boys, the tourists girls are blissfully unaware of their radical stance. After all in our countries men and women dance in the same space, don't they?
Apart from the toxic nature of the dyes that are used, you look like a Holi freak for weeks afterwards since the dyes stay on your skin as long as they take to course through your bloodstream. You look like yesterdays news in other words.

The other thing one needs to consider is the fact that the local boys have been working themselves up for weeks for this dance fest-ravganza by performing mad stick dances for five nights in a row. So they are primed in more ways than one, also consider the top Indian erotic Image of all time, the wet clothes scene and then throw in some foreign booty and see what happens next!