Udaipur

Udaipur is considered the most romantic city in India and along the water I can understand how the city got this description. The old city is situated around Lake Pichola, which rivals Varanasi in terms of aesthetic appeal because Lake Pichola is much cleaner than the Ganges and along the water is very well maintained. The area is famous from one of the older James Bond films called Octopussy in which the lake and palace were used and many restaurants show this film each night at 7:00 pm.

The old city is framed by the Aravalli hills and the outstanding sights are The City Palace and the Lake Palace, which are located in the middle of the lake. It seemed as though every restaurant that we went to in Udaipur was a rooftop and they all had incredible views of the old city and lake.

My time in Udaipur was especially memorable because we happened to be in the city during Holi. Holi is a Hindu festival of colours in which people in the streets will throw coloured dye on each other. It is meant to be a light, happy celebration. My Indian host family told me that there was no significant spiritual meaning to the festival, it is purely meant for enjoyment. Some people celebrate Holi for more than one day, however, the celebration with throwing dye is only one day. During Holi, businesses are closed during the celebration and social norms are relaxed. A common greeting during this time is “Happy Holi”, just like we would say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year”.

One major problem with Holi is to do with the quality of the dye. There are natural and chemical dyes, although the natural dyes are more expensive. During Holy, people go for quantity rather than quality of dye. There are serious health affects associated with the chemical dyes, such as skin cancer and respiratory disorders. Also, foreign women can face the threat of inappropriately behaviour from some men who are drinking or are too caught up in the excitement of the festival. For these reasons, I did not participate in Holi but I was able to see some of the celebrations before and see the aftermath. I think that I would have had the best time participating in Holi if I was a young Indian boy.

After leaving a restaurant on the night before Holi we found ourselves among the Holi celebrations on the street. In the afternoon, huge piles of wood had been set up in the streets in teepees and these were lit on fire and burning all around. There were also fireworks being lit off around these fires. Families, groups of women, and groups of young men were on the streets enjoying the social celebration. Some people had brought huge speakers and were playing Bollywood as well as North American top 40 songs. The streets were not officially closed off but traffic was significantly affected.

On the day of Holi, the dye throwing ended around 3:00 pm and by about 5:00 we felt that we were safe to go check out the old city. The auto-rickshaw drive that we took to get to the old city was one of the strangest that I have taken in India. The streets of Udiapur were eerily quiet, which is very rare of any Indian city because of the large population of the country. There was evidence of the dye all over the streets, on scooters, auto-rickshaws and motorcycles, and on the cows roaming the streets. Some shop owners were starting to clean up the front of their shop in order to open for the afternoon and the last of the people who participated in the dye throwing festivities were slowing filing home to clean up. It seemed as though the young boys and men were the most covered in colour although I think that they were also the one throwing the most dye at others. Some older people were also covered in dye, although not as much as younger people.

During the days following Holi I was able to know who had participated in the festivities because some of the dye was still on their skin. I was told by a shop owner that many people will but oil on their skin before Holy. This way the dye will not stay on their skin and if they are caught by someone with dye then they can slip away. I saw many young boys with water guns during the days leading up to Holy. I learned that dye sinks into the skin better with the water than without.