Holi 2007 with Yoga Students

After my tour in Australia in 2007, I returned to Vrindavan, on time to be back for Holi, the big colour celebration. This time, it would be a very big celebration: the students of the IYTT, the international yoga teacher training which we were doing in collaboration with the Cologne University were going to come, too!

They and a few friends arrived and so we had about 20 people at the Ashram. Of course, the students also had yoga classes and lectures, so we were very busy. Many of them were in India for the first time. That’s how we had a funny incident on the second day after the students’ arrival:

One young woman, maybe 25 years old, came running down the stairs, excited. She saw us and, out of breath from the quick run, told us what the matter was: ‘There is a small crocodile in my room!’ What? A crocodile? We couldn’t believe our ears! We quickly went up to her room with her to see the reptile with our own eyes. It was, indeed, a reptile and it was small, too. But it was nowhere nearly as dangerous as a crocodile! It was a lizard!

We had to laugh and explained her that it was normal here to have them go in and out of the rooms – and they eat your mosquitoes, so that’s actually great!

Days of classes passed – but on the day of Holi celebration, there was no work or learning, just fun!

You can imagine how big a celebration it is with 20 people running in the Ashram gardens, throwing colour powder and coloured water onto each other!

After the biggest and wildest fun, we made a game: everybody lay down next to each other on the grass in the garden. From one side, the first person rolled over all others and then the next and the next. While they were rolling, we poured and sprayed more colour water on them! The colour spread even more and everyone had to laugh a lot!

As it is with the colours here, they are not very easy to get off though! We each year enjoy Holi still later when everyone has showered but is still slightly green, blue or pink. In this year, many students were pink! And one man and one woman with originally blond hair suddenly had the head full of pink hair!

The lady decided to keep the pink. She liked it and said it wouldn’t matter at her work. The man however shaved his head – maybe it is a question of gender as well?

🙂