holi moli.

Holi is a Hindu festival I have yet to fully understand. Its roots stem from the coming of Spring, with the original Holi colors coming from the spring blossoming trees. But really, these days it seems to just be a day when you don your worst clothes and willingly join in on a full on war of colors; subjecting yourself to public ridicule. It is a day in which all politeness goes down the drain and it is socially acceptable. While I welcome spring just as much as the next person,  I am a bit unsure as to whether it needs to include immersing my body in a rainbow of colors...especially synthetic ones.

This year Holi fell on a weekday, and other than a few colored fingerprints on my face, I escaped the uproar occurring throughout the bazaar. Saturday we had our own Woodstock celebration, making it the one time that it is ok to harm your students, and them their teachers. Last year we made the journey to Rishikesh for celebration, this year was much more subdued in some ways, but also much more vicious in others; the kids were quite relentless. 

As Nan and I made the journey down to Hanson Field, the students began to eye us up, subconsciously reaching into their color bags and itching to douse us. To say that they handled us roughly would be putting it nicely. It seemed the entire student body was out to get me. The first few hits were nice, little seventh grade girls nicely tapping me with color and saying 'happy Holi' but soon things began to get a bit out of hand. One boy ran in full force, smearing yellow all over my head while screaming 'this is for my bad grade in English' (of course I rebuttaled well, drenching him with a bucket of water with a side of red powder). Every which way I turned color was forcefully thrown at me, water guns were shooting from all angles and I couldn't help but feel that I was in a war zone,  very vibrant one.

There is no way that these colors are good for you, one ninth grade student hit me straight in the mouth with what had to be at least two handfuls of green. Instantly my saliva evaporated and my throat constricted. For a second I thought I was just going to pass out in the middle of the celebration, not able to breath or see because my contacts were covered with a yellow film from a few moments before. It felt like I had just inhaled a bucket full of chalk, resulting in the biggest toxic high that I have ever experienced.

After about an hour or so of 'playing' we had had enough and left the field looking like a mix between Rainbow Bright and dirty swamp creatures. It took about three showers to get all the color off (it is quite likely there still is bits of purple in my ears), four days to get my lungs feeling back to normal and a week to recover from the emotional trauma of my students beating the crap out of me.

before

small children were very afraid of me...