Rang Barse!! (Color-Lashed!): India's Holi Festival in Manila

- March 24, 2013, Sunday.

- The Asia Society of the Philippines has brought the Indian festival named "Holi" to Manila, and was celebrated earlier this afternoon in SM Mall of Asia, by the bay. Holi is celebrated by the participants throwing colored gulal powder, or spraying usual/colored water at each other. It is celebrated to mark the transition from winter to spring, or to celebrate harvest. Hinduism tells a story about holi, where the demon king Hiranyakashipu became angry at his son Prahlad, because he was a devotee of Vishnu, rather than Hiranyakashipu, who has gained many boons from the gods, and wanted to play god himself. Hiranyakashipu wanted to kill his son, but Prahlad always made it out alive and unharmed. The final sentence was for Prahlad to sit on his aunt Holika's lap, and both of them will be burned; Holika was fire-proof because of a boon given to her. Prahlad prayed to Vishnu, was miraculously was unharmed by the fire, and Holika was surprisingly burned by the flames. Holika turns to ashes, and Prahlad's salvation through devotion was the root of the Holi celebration. Interestingly, "Holi" gets its name from "Holika." Others claim that holi was also related to the unending love of Krishna (the eithth avatar of Vishnu,) and his lover, Radha. The exact day of Holi from 2013 will be this Wednesday, the 27th of March.

- I've received word from schoolmates in UP weeks ago about the Holi festival that was celebrated in SM Mall of Asia earlier. I was hesitant to go at first, since I knew how wild and messy Holi could be, and there's a possibility that the colored powder would take time to wear of from my clothes and my body parts. I would be leaving for the Holy Week, and I did not want to look like I rainbow vomited on me, so I took extra measures to protect myself from the flying colors and heat. Good thing my Indian friend Roshni gave me some tips, such as placing lotion or baby oil on the skin and hair to make the colors easily wash off.

- I invited Charmaine and Riezeryl to celebrate Holi with me, and they immediately agreed. (I guess this is a sign that I have semi-Indianized my friends.) I met them today at 10am, and went to MOA to register and pay the 100php entrance fee. We also met up with Charmaine's officemate Val.

I had palak panner, or spinach with cottage cheese; one of my favorites.

Indians taking over the stage, dancing their own bhangra numbers.

A Sikh.

From SingIndia band.

They were having fun with their roti canai.

They're gonna dance.

We have our own gulal powder packs!! Yay!!

- We first had lunch in the venue, of course a very Indian lunch, and walked around to watch the Indians dancing on stage, and other excited participants who started to throw colors even before the countdown. Finally, at around 1pm, colors and flower petals flew in all directions, as drums and cheers livened up the color-splashing ceremony.

Holi Hai!!

My contribution to Holi: My pack of yellow gulal powder. HAHA.

A face among the crowd.

All colored!!

With my makeshift turban and lungyi (sarong.)

- Apart from throwing colors at each other, cultural performances such as Punjabi bhangra numbers and Kathak numbers were done, as well as other modern dances by the Indian transnationals in Manila. The dance number done by the cute little Indian girls dressed up in their Rajasthani lehenga-cholis (a skirt-blouse combination) was one of the crowd favorites.

Long time no see!!

The "Mere Dholna" Krishna-Radha Kathak dance.

Cute Krishna!!

- Charmaine, Riezeryl, and Val went inside the mall to cool themselves, as the sun was being unbearably hot. I opted to stay to observe more. Interestingly, I saw other people I knew who also joined in the festivities, such as my Indian friend Hitesh, and my Atenean friend Ceej.

Desi Boys,

and Desi Girls.

ITTTT'S BHANGRA TIME!!!!

I am officially one of them -____-

Nice person who smiled for my camera.

Another nice person.

Second bhangra.

- The main event ended with a second bhangra number. Afterwards, games and other minor events took place. I left after the main program, since that was what I really wanted to see and experience; after all, this is my first Holi. I changed into my street clothes once more, and looked for Charmaine and company in the food court. We ate for a while, and left for home. Despite the extreme heat, we were glad that it did not rain like the other days, and that the colors removed easily from our skin (and hopefully our clothes.) As for me, I never thought I'd celebrate Holi here in the Philippines, and so it's an item off my all-things-Indian-to-experience bucket list. Right now, I am contemplating on how to remove this sunburn that makes me look like tocino (sweet-cured meat) or bacon, but more than that, I am looking forward to celebrating Diwali (Indian festival of lights,) like I always do, this November 3.

Lunch in Movie World!!: Debbie Day 2013

- March 17, 2013, Sunday.

- My friend Debbie is back from Canada again, and as always we had to strategically schedule our meet-up before she's on her way back to Canada once more. This year, Siennalee and Sherlaine tagged along. Both of them were Debbie's grade school classmates.

Scary Batman's head below Cat Woman.

- We all agreed to have lunch at the newly-opened Movie Stars Cafe within the MOA compound. It is located at Seaside Boulevard, right beside Hooters, near the boulevard's intersection with Palm Coastal Avenue.

- I have long-wanted to try this restaurant, especially after seeing my friends' and other bloggers' photos with life-sized movie characters, or with the restaurant crew dressed up as the characters from famous films like Star Wars or Avengers. The crew would always give some dance performances with their costumes, and there were also nightly band performances. The food seemed pricey, but I was told that the servings were huge.

- We all met at the restaurant around 12:45pm. It was almost empty, since the life of the restaurant comes out at night. Because of this, the crew were in their usual uniform, and not the costumes I wanted to see them in. As for the food, true enough, the servings were humongous, and each dish could have fed around 2 to 3 people. Also, Siennalee told us that it was her first time to eat a seafood pasta in Manila that really had a lot of seafood. We realized that perhaps, the price was quite reasonable after all.

- We stayed there for around three and a half hours, not only because we have much to catch up with Debbie, but because we had too much to eat. At least, the place was also good to explore, and taking photos with the movie paraphernalia, collectibles, and statues should not be missed.

With Shrek!!

Giant dinosaur head.

Audrey Hepburn.

- Sherlaine had to go sooner, and Siennalee, Debbie, and I walked around MOA to make the food go down. Too bad we didn't have too much time to hang out, although I'm still glad we did. As for Movie Stars Cafe, I hope I could visit it some time soon, dinner time preferably, so I can see its full Hollywood-like glory.

Joker!!

With Debbie and King Kong.

No Pie Pi Day of Asianness

- March 14, 2013 (3-14, therefore "pi,") Thursday.

- My friend Marga invited me earlier for a dinner nearby with our friend Melissa. Quite strange for them to have a dinner out on a Thursday night, but why not, right? It was also quite fortunate that we were able to push through, since the heavy rain poured this afternoon - it even hailed in some parts of Metro Manila - but the weathe went back to its good ole summer heat half an hour later.

- I met Marga at around 6pm, and went to Lucky to look for Melissa. We decided to have lunch in Little Asia. I wasn't used to seeing Little Asia quite empty, and had to constantly remind myself that it was still Thursday, and so the mall wasn't too full.

With their idol, Nichkun Horvejkul.

- We walked around afterwards to condition our tummies for dessert. Soon, we settled in Rainbow Snow to have Taiwanese desserts. I was a bit full, so I ordered a large glass of matcha mousse; it wasn't too sweet so I liked it. My friend and Rainbow Snow owner Ricsson was also there, and he came to chat with us once in a while.

- The three of us saw our friend Karen just as we were about to go to the parking lot. It was a nice brief encounter. I think she was the cherry on top of today's pi(e) day. :D:D:D:D

The Wizard of Self-Camera Shots and His Unicorns Once More

- March 9, 2013, Saturday.

- It's been a while since I last posted here; I've been quite busy lately with school and some personal errands. Still, I haven't stopped making time for amusement, entertainment, and relaxation. Today, I finally got to meet my college carpool group again in Lucky Chinatown Mall.

- My neighbor Charmaine and I stopped by at Starbucks Lucky to meet Kenn and Zach. We were later met by Danica, and we soon purchased tickets to "Oz the Great and Powerful" before hopping to Italianni's for dinner.

- Latecomers Mich and Eric joined us for dinner lately. Because of Danica's generosity of letting us use her Italianni's discount card, we all got to order more. We had 2 pastas, a pizza, a salad, and some prosciutto (Italian bacon.)

- We had Happy Lemon after dinner, just to wind down a bit, though our milk tea session had become more of a laughing fest, a continuation of our dinner hilariousness.

- Our last agenda for the night was the movie. Oz the Great and Powerful, starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle William, was perhaps one of the best 3-D movies I've seen. The effects were grand, and the 3-D parts were well-thought of. I felt the conclusion was a bit abrupt and straightforward, but nevertheless was a great family-fun movie.

I told them to have faith in me with this photo. Haha. It's a bit blurry though, but was supposed to be a test shot.

The power of the self-timer.

- Eric, Danica, went with Mich's car, and Charmaine, Zach, and I joined Kenn's on the way home. I hope we'll have more wind-down-hilarious meet-ups like this one more regularly. Been a long while since I last saw them.