Holi-day madness

Holi is the festival that is also called the “Festival of Colours,” where the downfall of Holika is celebrated by the throwing of coloured powders and spraying of coloured water. It always looks like a lot of fun when you see it on telly. We’d decided not to go seeking a Holi celebration, but rather see if it found us, and eventually it did.

The day started very sleepily, as many people seemed to be having a lie in after the bonfire celebrations of yesterday. We made good progress along scenic roads and stopped in a ridiculously quaint village called Kelsi for breakfast. It took a while to get all three of us breakfast, but we were eventually fuelled with potato things and ginger chai and ready to face the rest of the journey.

A lot of today’s route followed the coastal roads, with views of sweeping bays and coconut plantations below. There were a few climbs, but not much to worry us now.

Punctures did return to bother us though - as Tiger fell prey to yet another flat. We did get to fix it atop a cliff whilst sipping coconut milk from a shell - even the day’s troubles are pretty cool.

Whilst puncture fixing, we met some Mumbai cyclists, Dixit and a friend, who wanted to know about our trip. They may be a help in Mumbai in a day or too.

At this point we had seen some kids having a water fight, but that was the extent of the Holi celebrations we’d witnessed.

That changed when we rounded a corner to see around a hundred villagers dancing to a band. The men all wore orange, the women all wore the same saree design and they were dancing in the middle of the road. We rode slowly passed, but a few of the men came running after us and persuaded a very hesitant Tiger and I to join them.

Luckily, the dance was not very complicated - raising both arms in the air and dancing to the beat seemed to suffice. All our fellow revellers’ faces were covered in different colour powders - an incredibly powerful scene.

I was then led over to the shrine, where an effigy of Lord Shiva was being honoured. I decided this wasn’t a time to enter into a philosophical discussion about religions’ place in reality, and made a quick bow to Shiva. In return I was honoured with some blessed food - a bunch of bananas, very handy.

Tiger was led over to the shrine too and also made a confused attempt at “doing the right thing.” As he was returning though he was hit by a fusillade of red powder across his back - adding a very effective pattern to his blue cycling top.

We thanked our hosts and made our way northwards once again - Tiger now looking much more in keeping with the festival spirit. We drew chuckles and shouts of “Holi Holi!” as we passed people now and they saw Tiger’s jersey.

A little while later, in another small coastal town we came across a water fight in progress. We were to cycle right through the middle, but a command was obviously issued by some of the mothers that we should not be harmed.

Everyone pulled back and lowered their water guns - which seemed a little out of keeping with the day. Tiger got through unharmed, but I thought we should get involved and grabbed a water bottle and took aim at some of the assembled combatants. Immediately it was game on, and coloured water was fired from all sides. We got a few hits, but we scored some hits too!

Cycling away from the battle, we realised the red dye may be a little more permanent than I’d expected. Blue Strawberry may have a little more strawberry colour about her from now on.

Still, if the new colour scheme turns out to be permanent, it will always remind us of a very happy day riding through the Konkan Coast during Holi.