Holi Hai!!: India's Holi Festival 2015 at SM Mall of Asia

- March 1, 2015, Sunday.

- India's color-explosive festival "Holi" has once again brought in Filipinos, Indians, Fil-Indians, and other foreigners to SM Mall of Asia - By the Bay, to experience India's folk/street-party culture. The event was organized, for the third time, by Asia Society of the Philippines, Sing India, and of course, the Indian Embassy of the Philippines; Holi was first organized as a public event in Manila in 2013 by these same organizers. I was able to attend Holi in 2013 (click here,) and I can say that this year, the crowd, the color, and the excitement has tripled!

The official poster.

- The better treat this year was that the embassy decided to waive the entrance fees of former delegates of the ASEAN-India Student Exchange Program, plus a companion; this is to encourage more people to experience the vibrant, rich, and diverse cultures of India. Since I was an "alumnus" of the 2012 ASEAN-India Student Exchange Program, I go t to avail this perk, and I decided to bring my neighbor Charmaine with me; she also went with me during the 2013 Holi. I didn't get to go to last year's Holi because I was in Hong Kong for an academic conference (read about it here, here, and here.)

- Holi is celebrated for a number of reasons. One reason is to celebrate the joy of the coming of spring, when there are plenty of crops, which will lead to plenty of harvest. Another reason is to commemorate the Prahlad's destruction of the demon (and Prahlad's aunt,) Holika; Prahlad was the son of the demon king Hiranyakashipu, but despite this, Prahlad was a devotee of the preserver god Vishnu. The last punishment for Prahlad's devotion to Vishnu was to be burned with his supposedly fire-proof aunt Holika. Vishnu used his powers to protect Prahlad from the fire, and burn Holika instead. Apart from this story, other regions in India use a story that features Krishna throwing color at Radha, his spiritual consort (i.e. a rather upgraded definition of "soulmate,") and all the other gopikas (cowgirls.)  Krishna felt that the other girls did not like him because of his dark skin, so the color-throwing was done to mask Krishna's dark skin, an insecurity of his, as well as the skin of all the other girls. This color-throwing, hence, was celebrated as Holi. Bringing things to the current age, and in Manila, apart from celebrating Holi based on the three main reasons above, Holi was brought to Manila as a way to strengthen the brotherhood of the Filipinos, and the Indians in the Philippines.

- This year's Holi had several stalls and booths that taught basic yoga, provided instructions and materials for making rangoli (an Indian folk art that uses colored powder to make auspicious images,) sold Indian clothes and jewelry (mostly by the members of the Indian Ladies Club,) and drew henna. The Indian Embassy also had a special booth that gave away free Hindi books for children, and some pamphlets and booklets on India's tourist spots. Of course, I got more Hindi books for myself, for reading comprehension practice.

Yoga session with a cute Indian child.

Rangoli.

People going crazy even before the event.

- Apart from my neighbor, I also got to reunite with some of my co-delegates from the 2012 ASEAN-India exchange. While we enjoyed the event since there were things that reminded us of our experiences in India, I had to be a diplomatic usher, and bring my co-delegates to say our hellos/namastes and thanks, and take some photos with the people from the Indian Embassy who personally invited us to join Holi (i.e. First Secretary Dr. Suresh Kumar, and of course, the ambassador, H.E. Lal Duhthlana Ralte;) I was the only one among us who has met both of them beforehand, so I had the job of spotting these VIPs in this rowdy festival.

Neighbor pow(d)er!!

ASEAN-India Co-delegates.

- I also got to say hello to some of my thesis respondents, all of which are second-generation Indians in Manila, who came to attend Holi. I am glad that they still recognize me, since I have only met them once or twice in person. I was even more surprised to get hellos from other Indians living in Manila with whom I've had brief encounters during my visit to the ambassador's house for the flag hoisting event during the 66th Republic Day (click here to read about it.)

- The highlight of Holi, the throwing of the gulal powder, was done around 4pm. I had a not-as-nice shot this year, compared to before, since the position of the sun and the barricades gave big lighting and angle challenges to people taking photographs. The first Holi in Manila was done during lunch time, which gave perfect lighting, although that meant awful sunburns; the second Holi and this year was moved to late afternoon , which was good for minimizing sunburns, but that meant photography challenges. (Also, the prevalence of selfie sticks proved to be a pet peeve because they photobombed otherwise nice/decent photos; the longer the selfie stick, the worse.)

Before the countdown.

Selfie sticks: the bane of my existence. Well, not really. More like just a pet peeve.

More colors.

My neighbor and an enthusiastic person beside her.

More for you, and more for you!!

Jasmine, my friend, and respondent.

My co-delegates and I, with First Secretary Dr. Suresh Kumar from the Indian Embassy.

-  Holi, in India, is a really wild festival. Imagine the whole country throwing colored powder at one another. Compared to India, the Holi here in Manila is "extremely tame," but for someone who's not used to rowdy parties, I think that the Holi in Manila is still wild nonetheless - which makes Holi fun, even though getting myself "dirty" isn't my usual definition of fun. Well, Holi's an exception; it's one of the rare times that I allow myself to get "dirty."

- After the powder-throwing, we went to the stalls selling Indian food. I had some pani puri, idli with sambar - both of which are not as easy to find in restaurants here in Manila - and some good old roti canai.

I missed Indian food so so much.

 - After we ate, the ambassador arrived and gave some remarks on fostering the brotherhood of the Indians and the Filipinos. If was more than amusing to see the ambassador getting colored and dancing around. I was more amused that his two daughters remembered me from the flag hoisting event, said hello to me, and asked how my SLR was. (I left my SLR at home, the one I received from the awarding at the flag-hoisting event, and brought my handy and trusted digicam instead. After all, I didn't want to risk damaging my SLR from all the flying/lingering colored powder that could get inside my SLR; my digicam was easier to manage for this kind of event.)

H.E. Lal Duhthlana Ralte.

My co-delegates and I (and a bit of my neighbor) with the ambassador.

- The rest of the afternoon was filled with dance performances, although most of the dances were quite modern, unlike before, which had a good balance of traditional/classical, and modern dancing. Despite this, most of the people still enjoyed everything, Of course, Bollywood songs and [Punjabi] bhangra songs added "Indianness" to the festival.

Bhangra dancing.

Our emcees Roshan and Migel.

Desi Boyz.

Everyone needs a bit more color, no?

- The event, apparently, had a second powder-throwing countdown/ceremony, during sunset. Fortunately, the sunset gave some better (and more dramatic) lighting. The better shots I had was a consolation for the not-really-satisfactory-based-on-my-standards photos during the first powder-throwing countdown/ceremony.

Second powder-throwing segment.

Probably the best shot of the day.

Yay!!

The toddler was having a lot of fun!!

This uncle....

....did this to my face. :|:|:|:|

More bhangra dancing.

- We all walked towards the "mini-bazaar;" we bought some shawls and got more books. On the way to the mini-bazaar, we also got to meet some alumni from the 2014 batch (last year's batch) of the ASEAN-India Exchange program. I was glad that I recognized one of them who happened to face my direction, and he did too - lo, instant connection! It was my first time to meet them in person so I wasn't sure if my eyes were deceiving my again. (Back story: while they were preparing for their delegation trip last year, some of them stumbled upon my blog entries about our ASEAN-India batch. Some of them added me on FB so they could ask me more questions and tips on how to prepare for the trip. It felt nice to know that my blog is reachable in the vast ocean that is the internet, and that the things I've been writing here, supposedly for fun, have actually helped some people.)

Dancing until night.

-My codelegates, my neighbor, and I got tired, so we spent the time left watching the people dance nonstop on stage until the sun completely set. One of the emcees had to cut the crowd since the stage couldn't support the weight of everyone. The people loved to dance so much that even as we left, the people were still dancing. Right now, I am still having a hard time scrubbing the gulal powder off my me, and I am hoping that the gulal powder will wash off my clothes without problems, I can say that attending this year's Holi was yet another "colorful" experience from the monotony of daily life - especially as I write my thesis these days.




** I would also like to say hello and thanks to the random people in the event who said hello to me after recognizing me as "the blogger with the Indian/cultural stuff" or "the guy who has that site with the Indian stuff." I never really considered myself as a formal blogger, unlike my good friend and sometimes partner in (legally-approved) crime, thetummytrain.com, but like I mentioned earlier, it felt nice to know that my blog entries are searchable, reachable, informative, and helpful. It makes me more inspired to experience more things, and write about them, and share them to people.

** Hello again to the 2014 ASEAN-India alumni that my co-delegate and I got to meet earlier. Too bad we only had time for short talks. Again, thank you also for trusting the contents of my blog during your preparations for the trip last year.

** Hello to my thesis respondents, let's hope I graduate soon. Huehue.