We were so sleepy when we got off the bus at the food court. After being out in the fresh air, we eventually lost our sleep after dragging our lazy asses out of the bus to the highly sophisticated restaurant.
The evening at the restaurant was relaxing and enjoyable. We ate a lot. I tried a lot of new dishes yesterday. Like me, the Torres also fell in love with Indian cuisine.
We tried fire paan after that. I can honestly say that I have never tasted anything quite like it. It gets so bitter in the end that we all end up eating the chocolate paan or mango paan.
We had a blast trying that. Initially, Arnav and Dylan were scared, but we eventually got them to do this.
Because we were all exhausted after arriving at the Ashram, which served as a similar hotel, we all managed to get a good night's sleep.
The time is now 8 in the morning, and before we go to the famous temples, we'll all go shopping for today's festive attire.
Hindus celebrate Holi to honor one of the Indian mythological legends. Krishna and Radha love Holi, and here we are in Vrindavan, where Lord Krishna was born and spent his childhood.
It would be incredible to celebrate Holi in a city where people visit specifically to celebrate the festival.
"Katie!" Mom yelled.
"Yes mom!" I opened the door.
"Thank God! You finally opened the door."
"You were knocking?" I asked.
"Oh no, no, no, I was standing out there just waiting for you to recognize my presence so you could open the door." Mom replied slyly.
"Radhe Radhe! Young lady, talk nicely to your daughter, when you are standing in such a holy place." I said.
"Radhe Radhe! Young lady, have some manners and don't talk back to your mom." Mom mimicked, and I ended up cracking up.
"Okay, let's go! I am ready!" Lex finally popped out of the restroom.
"You do realize that we have to change our entire outfits after we come back from shopping?" Mom claimed.
"Oh, c'mon Katherine, I'll dress up again, it's no big deal." Hearing Lex address mom by her first name felt too weird for the first time. Maybe I get into the habit of listening to people call her aunt or bhabhi.
"Whatever you girls like to do, but let's go now." Mom dragged us both while picking our room's card.
***
We decided to walk to the shop, as it's convenient that way, but guess what? Someone got her new top ruined.
"Lex!"
"Don't you dare Kat!" Lex warned me, but c'mon I can hardly control my laugh.
"Hey, they did say 'Bura na mano Holi hai!' (Don't mind it's holi.)" I reasoned.
"Not when they freaking ruin clothes." She exaggerates.
"C'mon take a chill pill sis, it's just clothes." Dylan! Bad move!
"Lexii...relax. We are shopping for new clothes, don't worry." I interrupted her before she could swear.
Lex just stomped her foot and moved forward more quickly and cautiously.
***
The women were getting ready in mom's room, while the men were in uncle Steve's.
"Why did we buy all white clothes? It will get dirty too. It would have been better if it was all black."
"Where's the fun in that? These clothes will be a souvenir in themselves, to remind us of how much fun we had. It will remind us of the memories we will make today." Aunt Elle reasoned.
"Lex, aren't you tying your hair in a braid?" I asked.
"I took 30 minutes to curl them all up, so why braid them now?" Lex claimed.
"To prevent colours from mixing in your hair, you should definitely braid it tightly." Aunt Lara answered.
"I don't mind getting my hair dirty too if we are going to have colors all over us." And you can see where my fashion traits come from.
"Then I will go and curl my hair too." I exclaimed and excused myself.
***
All of the ladies are wearing white cold shoulder tops, paired with white gypsy ankle-length skirts, and the boys are back in a white kurta and pants.
Putting our goggles on we left the Ashram. We have left our phone and purse at the hotel only. It won't be safe taking it in such a crowd.
Lex and I debated whether or not to take the phone. There were more cons than pros, so we didn't have any other choice. While we would have loved to capture all the moments on our devices, we will only keep the memories alive in our hearts today.
Now that we have taken pictures with our actual dresses, we can see what will happen to our outfits after we return, but for instance, we just have to live in the moment.
It was today that we actually wore the proper summer clothing. Let's welcome this summer with remarkable memories.
We took an electric rickshaw to the nearest we could get to the temple from that vehicle. It was dad who was carrying some money in a plastic pouch.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed. Scratch what I said on the first day when I saw the crowd in our society, but the real crowd is actually here. With all the tumult voices around here, and the enormous crowd I should really consider my plan of having fun.
"OH MY GOD! You must be kidding me!" Lex shouted.
"How are we not supposed to get lost in this place?" Dylan shouted.
"All kids must be paired up with an adult when walking, and protect your goggles because in this crowd the monkeys will grab them from you, and you will only be able to get them back if you have Frooti with you, which is not possible."
"Since when monkeys started drinking mango drinks?" Arnav asked.
"Monkeys, here, only return your stuff if you give them frooti to drink. Now let's remove our shoes here."
"Remove our shoes? Why?" Lex shouted, and I internally laughed.
"Baby, what do you think? Why do I have a hard time settling in here?"
"This is straight up weird! How can you expect me to walk barefoot in a place like this?" Dylan chimed in.
"C'mon guys, you will eventually forget about it. Do it as a one-time thing." I am motivated.
"My memory of this will likely never fade." Lex stated.
"Oh c'mon, just do it for me, Lex."
"I am so gonna hate you for this." Lex takes off her shoe and gives it to the shopkeeper, from whom we are buying the colors.
Arnav convinced Dylan as well. Lexi is easy to convince, but Dylan is harder. He puts you on your tail for the whole day just for his approval, and even after the day is over, he says he will think about it.
Typically a person you will hate being acquainted with at first, but he is proud of that.
"You have to compensate for this, Kat!"
"Whatever drama queen." She is ranting in my face about this when I don't like it for myself, but hey, let's look on the fun side.
"Look at all the different colors on these people!" Dylan exclaimed.
"The color would ruin their health, wouldn't it?" I asked.
"Holi here is played with natural colors, so we don't need to worry." Uncle Karthik replied.
Moving forward is all we can do as we continue walking. Backing up in this crowd is not an option. I can see people hailing Lord Krishna's name, and also celebrating Holi altogether.
"The..." I am suddenly all drenched. Someone emptied their whole water bucket on me.
"Hahaha...Katie, how are you feeling?" Lex asked while laughing.
"You want to know how I want to feel?" and I took a fistful of yellow color out of my pocket and threw it at her face.
"Awe! Now, are you feeling too dry?" I laughed uncontrollably.
Lex takes out her pink color and throws it at me, but I suddenly ducked behind mom, which results in mom's face literally turning pink. It was at that moment, as we walked towards the temple, that our Holi began.
Even though it was total chaos filled with thousands of voices, and I was standing amidst it, I felt refreshed. The atmosphere was filled with happiness, joy, and colors. Children were throwing water from their water guns, as we walked through the narrow streets.
With my beautiful hands, I rubbed Lex's, Dylan's, and Arnav's faces all yellow. I love watching Dad and Mom play with colors. My heart blooms with eternal happiness when I see my parents so carefree. I have captured a lifetime memory by capturing the smile on their faces.
There's something so magical about this aura, and it's almost nonexistent. People are completely covered in color, celebrating Holi while worshipping Radha-Krishna.
One day out of our usual routine is worth celebrating the happiness of our world.
As we near the temple after walking and playing with colors for what felt like 2 hours, our energy levels are still high.
Holi was no longer a festival of color, but rather of flowers. Instead of throwing colors, people started throwing flowers. I quickly grabbed it from the flower basket in both hands and threw it all in the air.
"Now what? Do we have to bathe in rose petals now?" Dylan asked.
"It does seem like that!" And Arnav dropped all his color and the rose petals on Dylan's hair, which he was trying to save, this whole time.
"Bura na mano Holi hai." Arnav exclaimed, and we burst out laughing.
"Oh bro! You messed up with the wrong person!" Dylan tried to threaten but failed miserably because he was busy laughing at himself.
"Nope! I messed up with the right person." Arnav said simply. Indeed, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
***
We are back in the Ashram after spending nearly five hours out there, playing, worshipping, and having lunch. We ate aloo-Kachori, with lemonade.
We finally got a turn to get in front to worship the Lord and the Lordess after three hours, but we didn't even get three minutes to pray properly. Though it was probably the most frustrating experience of my life, if I view the situation in a more optimistic light, the beauty of the moment lies in waiting for such a long time, to just catch a glimpse of our Lord.
After putting some Instagram stories up, where my lovelies were, I ended up bathing for one hour straight to remove the color. I still got color on my face and arms, and maybe in my hair too.
***
We are all well rested at this time since it is six in the evening. By 6:30 p.m., we will check out of the Ashram. We will then visit Prem Mandir, especially to see the Krishna Raas Leela open ground. It has a high Google rating and equally impressive pictures.
"Kat!" Lex called out.
"Yeah!"
"You don't need to go to school here anymore, do you?" Lex inquired.
"No!"
"You're almost finished with your stay in India, and there's nothing left to do here, right?" I know where this is going now.
"Yes!"
"So why don't you come back to Miami with us. Katherine and David will return too, as soon as their work here is finished."
"I think it's not such a bad idea after all. Why don't we suggest this to our fam?" We walked out of the room before checking the room thoroughly and knocked on Mom and Dad's room, where I'm sure Elle and Steve were too.
Back to the first name Katie! I see!
Oh shut up Catie! It doesn't matter.
As you say!
Dad opened the door as expected, and the other three glanced at the visitors.
"Mom! Dad!" Lex and I both exclaimed in unison.
"Now what are you guys up to?" They all asked in unison.
"Awe! You guys know us so well!" I stated.
"Of course they do Dumbo, they are our parents." Lex poked me in the head.
"Don't play around the bushes, we can directly come to the point honey," Mom said.
"So Lex and I were thinking..."
"Hey! I have the responsibility of revealing it since it was my idea."
"Okay ma'am, do the favours." I joined my hands together to replicate my words.
"So Kat and I were thinking..."
"You guys can think? " Dylan chimed in from the slightly ajar door. Damn, I should have shut it when I entered.
"Shut up and come in or get lost!"
"I'd rather get lost, but if you are insisting, I'll just come in." Dylan got in and Arnav followed him.
"Continue!" Mom said.
"No, wait! Let's discuss this after we visit our last destination on the trip." I stated while looking into Lex's eyes.
"That's not fair." Dylan whined, and the elders nodded in agreement.
"Well life isn't fair, what can we do?" Lex rhetorically asked, and Dylan pouted.
***
"So why didn't you let me tell them about it?" Lex asked as we took our seats on our bus.
"Because Arnav was there," I reasoned.
"So what?"
"Really Lex! You don't know what it was?"
"I know Kat, but why? At some point you'll leave, so why not now rather than later, and he has to accept it, no matter what."
"Let's talk about this later, as we planned, okay?" I asked for confirmation.
"Hmm." Lex just hummed and zoned out.
"Whoa whoa! This place is really something! I fell in love with it at first sight." I exclaimed while entering this beautiful place.
"This is heaven! Just look at these beautiful artifacts and all." Lex shouted, pointing at the Rass Leelas.
"The best plan Uncle Karthik came up with was to come here at night and visit the Taj Mahal in the morning." I stated.
"This place looks so magical. Let's go, we have to check all of them out." Dylan stated.
"Yeah!" Arnav shouted.
After standing in line for so long to get into the temple, we were beyond exhausted. With only one stop on our way back to home, where we will have dinner, we quickly boarded the bus.
"So we were talking about..." I interrupted Lex, "Please! Can we talk about this tomorrow?"
"But..."
"The answer I give you at this moment is going to be unsatisfactory if I answer anything today, Lex. I need some time to think, you understand right?"
"I do!" Lex sighed, and slipped into her own world, the same as I did.
***
Hello, lovelies! The next update will hopefully be out tomorrow. You can see that we are way too close to the end, so yeah three cheers for it!
I also want to tell you guys that there is Lathmar Holi, known as Holi of sticks as well. It is one of the most beautiful mythological stories of Indian culture.
Also writing a Holi scene seems totally weird on Diwali!
Happy Diwali to all of you.
***
Q: Holi or Diwali?
A: it's a hard choice, but Holi it is.
K: Definitely Holi. I nearly hurt myself because of those Diwali crazy crackers.
***
Vote if you like the chapter.