Santinketan - Happy Holi!

A couple of hours north by bus, Santinketan is this normally peaceful little university town. Its where the famous Indian poet Rabindrath Tagore lived and wrote many of his works. The university is a collection of buildings from the Rag (British India) era.

Once a year the town plays host to the Holi festival (a national public holiday)and half of Kolkata descends upon the town. Santi actually means peaceful but on this weekend the town goes off - Indian style. For a start I hadn't booked any accom so rocked up late in the arvo (after a day of bumping around in Buses) only to find all places booked...Oops. But thanks to the incredibly patient cycle rickshaw dude who cycled me all over town I managed to score the last room in town. Phew...

The festival was great and featured classical Indian dance and music. A cultural highlight. I had some camera battery issues (Indian batteries are cheap and dodgy) so only got to take some pics of the aftermath - red, yellow, green and orange tikka powder is used to 'decorate' faces and hair both of unwilling and willing participants followed by a 'happy holi' blessing. Gets very interesting and messy as is the only time I've seen Indians drinking beer (wobbly pops)!

Another rickshaw dude talked me in to coming on a tour of the town. Wow what a tour. We followed the stream of bikes, cars and trucks to a ethnic market in this little forest out of town. What a mind spin as well as traditional jewelry and clothes there were buskas and singers performing (check out the pick) all in the middle of the forest! Only in India of course.