Backing up, and then, Despite my Natural Tendencies, Trying to Sprint Forward

We'll start with my birthday, leaving part of February fumbling in the unlit corners of my memory.

[A brief note before this arbitrary beginning: before my birthday, we went to Agra. Was the worst city I've seen. At what was supposedly one of the nicer hotels in the area, I asked for clean replacements for the stained bedsheets in our hotel room. The man fumbled around a huge pile of frumpled sheets in a closet before coming out with a small one: "we only have one." The city was bad as well. We saw the Taj. For my feelings about it, see http://natalieireland.blogspot.com/2010/03/paris.html.]

My birthday happened to coincide with the Holi Festival of Colors, in which people in many parts of India run around the streets shouting and throwing powdered and liquid colors over everything in sight. Culturally, all I know: it's a celebration of Lord Krishna, it's when gods descend to Earth, it's when all normal rules are off. So men were reaching down our fellow females' shirts and expecting it to be acceptable. They just kind of rolled with it, for the most part. India often has that absorptive effect; you stop questioning it. Maybe it's the language barrier, but maybe not. ("Let India change you, because you sure won't change it.")

We celebrated in Mathura, which is supposed to be Krishna's birthplace (for more information on this blue beckoner, refer to The Bhagavad Gita. We tried to stay in Vrindavan, which we found to be impractical, and gave up. I distinctly remember the image of Mara politely shouting above the din of a group of local residents, "we're looking for a hotel!" while they stood in place and blasted her face with colors without restraint. After searching with no luck, we took the rickshaw ride to Mathura.

Got a pre-birthday call from Natalie. Nothing beats that. Made my day.

We settled into the Gaurav Boarding House, which cooked a mean margharita pizza. I spent part of the night sitting on the rooftop with Paul, Diana, and Anna, drinking beer and smoking bedes and singing bullshit songs Anna made up (which were concurrently awesome) and noticing the size of the moon's light halo that the clouds were screening.

I came back in, was summoned to the lobby, and was ambushed by birthday surprises. It was sweet, and it was thoughtful.



Fast forward eight hours, and I'm looking at a bottle of vodka that was put in my hand, wondering, "is this the direction I want my birthday to take?" Apparently so, for half an hour later I will be feeling the effects as colors fly everywhere around me, smeared on my shirt on my face, flying from my bag at any bystander. Green is my favorite, but there is no blue. And suddenly we are being lead to the house of a friend who I met the night before, the whole big group of us. He is Shikarr. He is very anxious. I see it on his face. And Paul keeps getting left behind, or leaving himself behind, performing the elaborate and exclusive Indian show of respect of the student to his master to everyone he sees on the streets. And suddenly, motorcycles and bicycles are driving around us, and the unfamiliar Indians riding them shout, "Joey! Get on!" in Hindi. And so here I am, laughing, riding down Mathuran avenues in circles with my abroad friends parading along within, toward some unknown house at the end of the walk.

And then we hear music, so we stop and celebrate in another family's driveway. We dance. I play a drum that's handed to me. And I play well, considering its foreignness to me. Much much fun.

Shikarr's family is very hospitable. They feed us, we dance more, we throw colors, Paul continues getting lost and Amanda looks for other houses to go into. In fact, she is being encouraged by a young metallic silver boy to come to his house.

We return to the hotel. We regain our sanity, we try to go to Vrindavan. We fail. Festivities end rather punctually, and we are left with a bunch of unfriendly Vrindavanis staring at our color pouches and stained clothing. We return to the hotel. I realize how surreal and awesome the day has been.