HOLI 2010..HK HK KKHH HR HR RRHH

No, the title is not an abbrevation for an upcoming KJ-SRK flick.

Happy holi every one....my holi was more like what Sri Krishna Janmashtami in India would be like..!! Confused?? Let me explain.

Sanjay, one of my desi colleagues here in PR told me that 28th being Holi and Sunday here we (Indians) planned to meet at the Radha-Krishna temple (ISKCON). "Wow..kool so i wont be missing anything this holi. I will also be able to meet most of the Indians on the Island and hopefully there will be some Indian food that i didnt cook." These were my pre-sunday/holi thoughts and i was right only about the Indian food part.

It was a nice drive around 20 miles from my apartment and the last few miles in a nice ghat. We reached the temple around 4PM and it was built on a hill top at a very pleasant place. After looking around for sometime. We sat down looking at the children (locals wearing Indian dresses and big naamams of what looked like sandalwood paste) playing around.

Then slowly people kept coming in and by 7 there were about 50 people there and only 10 desis. Most of the locals were dressed in cotton kurtas and dhotis (south indian style). They all started the bhajan at around 4pm chanting "Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare". We joined for some time came out and roamed around and again joined in for some time.

The best part was the last hour of bhajan when everyone stood up and started dancing for the bhajans. They sped up the chanting. The girls were dancing some indian folk (only one step) which looked like Dandia sans the sticks.

Finally by 9 all of them cooled down once the prasadam (they use this exact word but was actually a dinner) and the items were like this. Cake slice, rice with a curry (made of kabuli chana, potato and paneer), sweet (kind of halwa made of wheat), strawberry buttermilk shake and the best of all Dahi wada.

We were back at home before 10PM and thats how i celebrated my holi.