Holi Moli

Holi - an amazing day in the Indian calendar - a festival of colour. This country loves good festival but this day seems to be embraced by most and puts a smile on everyones face (until of course the joy of the good party wears off). Holi signals the end of winter and the start of summer - hurrah! From now on all we have to look forward to is watching the mercury climb!

Last year I was pretty new to the scene up here and didn't think an eight month old would really dig getting covered in coloured dye..... wind forward 12 months and we are all over it. We had a great day with some friends in the morning throwing colour, then chilled out in the afternoon with other mates over a couple of drinks listening to the chaos of Holi swirl around us on the streets.

Sophie getting Dad with colours!

 

now Mum's turn....

Napisan required?

 

 

Some locals enjoying the festival.

 

Happy Holi x

One year in ... time for some Hope.

Our family has ticked over one year in this incredible city. We have visited some amazing places but probably one that will be with me for a long time was the Hope Projects walk around Nizamuddin. (I have put in a link to the Hope Project at the bottom of the post. They are an interesting bunch so make sure you have a read.)
We were supposed to meet our guide outside Nizamuddin Police Station at 5.30pm, but like most things here, you never leave the meeting point before waiting at least 15 minutes and making at least 3 phone calls.

Finally our guide arrived and we started weaving our way through the streets of Nizamuddin. Nizamuddin is a primarily Muslim area and a rabbit warren, god knows where we walked, it was incredible.

Nizamuddin is full of beautiful little kids playing cricket and running up and down the small alleyways. There are attar shops that sell lovely little perfumes and chook shops with chickens close to their doom.

It is overwhelming and can feel like you have stepped back in time.

Mosques are aplenty and we arrived around prayer time so rivers of men where winding their way to worship, however we were certainly not welcome to go anywhere near the inside of the mosques.

As the sun set and we could no longer see what we were stepping in or on we hit the real market area. There were flower garlands, incense and the lingering smell of shoes...... always means its never long before you too will have your bare soles on the ground.

So remove our shoes we did and moved in to listen to the Sufi singers. The Sufi music is quite calming and relaxing and watching so many people hit the square to listen to it is quite lovely - men, women, kids, the elderly - everyone! It is busy but quite beautiful.

Since I have arrived here I have learnt that there is often something else going on under the surface at the same time as everything else. I was really confronted when I realised that the music was also used to calm a number of mentally disturbed people whose family bring them here in the belief that the music will cure them.

It's full on..... woman and men thrashing, swaying and beating themselves to the beat of the music. They also wail and moan which accompanies the melodic musicians. I have never experienced anything quite like it.

I couldn't stay there for too long and we moved on past the passage of beggars to the well of sacred water (although I think I am glad it was dark). We asked our guide, a resident of Nizamuddin, whether he believed the sacred water could cure you. His response - 'no, if you're sick you go to the doctor' - righteo then.

The final stop was HQ of the Hope Project which was lovely and we saw the resting place of the founder..... below. Lots of very cute kittens were keeping the tomb warm, so cute!

Of course no trip to Nizamuddin is complete without a good old kebab so off we went to a street food vendor doing a roaring trade in meat products. I won't say I wasn't nervous but I jumped in, enjoyed and ....... no unpleasant lasting results.

End result - a definite Delhi experience with a great organisation.

For more information on the Hope Project here.