Ya ya Holi was on 10th (In India) but here in Dubai, we wait till the weekend (Friday) to celebrate Indian festivals. And god, wot a day it was.
I had missed holi from the day I had started working. For 3 straight years I was devoid of this very fest that I enjoyed so much. I don't even remember why I couldn't celebrate it for 3 years. I remember writing essay (during my school days) on my favorite festival, no points for guessing it (don't worry this wont be like an essay).
I had to do a lot of things this weekend like paying a visit to my sagga kaka n kaki who are in Dubai visiting their Son. I had specific instructions from my dad to pay them a visit before they leave back to Kerala which was 2 weekends away. I had to do some office work so as to take some load off next week.
Weekend started as soon as I got outta office (Thursday evening 5:30 p.m.). Came back tried watching the remaining part of curious case of Benjamin button (of course pirated CD). But no matter how much I tried I fell asleep, again. But I set up an alarm for 8:00 p.m. The movie is good, I am liking it, but dats how I watch classic movies, let me not mention my novel reading style (many, take a month for me to finish, dat is if I finish it). Neways I figure I am deviating from the topic, as usual. I woke up at 8:00 went to watch the basketball match my section team (Wonderland) v/s Quality dept. Neways we won the match 64 - 53. Came back to join my roommates who had already started boozing. I cudnt booze (lets leave it to dat, I ll need one dedicated post to explain why?). But gave them company, just for change we were listening to old hindi classical songs along with the booze. This went on till 4:00 a.m in the morning.
My roommate Vaibhav (Sarkar)tried waking me up "Chal be, sade dus ho gaye"
Me: hhhhhhmmmmm adhe ghante baad, pls
(didnt hear him respond, so I assumed he too went to sleep)
Me (In my thought): wot do I do, go with him to celebrate holi or go to my Kaka and be an obedient boy.
(I fell asleep again concluding I will decide wen I wake up)
Sarkar: Chal saale sade gyaraah ho gaye.
Me: hhhhuhhhhh (damn u woke me up a second ago n told me it was 10:30, arsehole)
kya bakwaas kar raha hai ...... (rubbed my eyes to get rid of the sleep, only to realize he had already bathed. Bathed!!!!!!!)
Me: Abbe tujhe holi khelne jaana hai na??????
Sarkar : Ha ......., Kyu? (He always asks this, its his thing. KYU?)
Me : Kyu??? (completely stumped, Now wot do I tell him?). Nahi bus asise hi poocha re....
(Ohh man wot do I do? ... ok, I will have fun today ... sorry dad.. sorry boss .... I want HOLI ....... rang barse)
Me : Jaana Kaise hai? aur main nahi nahh raha.......
Sarkar : Kyu??????
Me : Bus aise hi ......... grrr ....aur jaana kaise hai?
Sarkar : Tere bike pe ......
Me : No ways .....
Sarkar : Kyu??????
Me : bus aise hi ........ ab jaana kaise hai (C'mmon man holi khelne ke baad I dont want to spoil my helmet plus we wont ride with wet clothes on)
Sarkar : Mere cousin se baat karta hoon.
(wore the most useless clothes that I had...took 1 short n a t-shirt in sarkar's bag .... took me 5 mins)
Me : Chal, tera cousin kahan aa raha hai pick karne?
Sarkar : ready ho gaya!!! (he looked as if I was suppose to take an hour to get dressed) ........... Sahara mall ke peeche.
Me : Okay ...... Jaya are u sure yo not comin ????
Jaya : Nahi re, I have to talk to my wife and I don't feel right to enjoy this.
Me : Theek hai (I knew he wouldn't come, so I didn't push)
We started walking, Sarkar's cousin picked us up and we reached the place (Wonderland - Its a childrens park).
Oh my god ........ we won't find parking, there was this flood of cars...... (by the way this place is next to my office) ..... luckily parking mil gaya ....... so many people .....most of them had already started colouring each other.......
holy crap this crowd was awesome ...... so many Indian people ....... so many babes ....... holy crap so many of them ...... all of them with guys around .....
We were waiting outside the entrance for our pass (free) to arrive for half an hour ...... and damn the bird watching was awesome ...... I saw some strange females ...... get this ..... females going to play holi dressed in spaghetti tops and mini skirt ....
I felt like asking one of them...... huh gurl !!!! U crazy ...... this party has stags entry and rain dance ..... then I was like, wot the fuck its treat for my eyes ..........U go gurl !!!!...... I'll see you on the floor (dance floor...oh maybe nefloor wud do .... hehehe... kidding)
All the guys shud have been ashamed ... most of them with T-shirts n Jeans / full pants .....
We too started putting colour on each other before entering ....... sarkar was like "Yaar sab ne colour lagaya hai, humko bhi colour laga lena chahiye"
After entering we went striaght for the rain dance ....... and boy was I amazed ...... This place was packed with around 2000 ppl dancing away to Hindi re-mix music ..... Sarkar and I went straight for it.... only wen I stepped down did we realize ...... The floor had water (cloured and god knows wot all in it) upto the ankles
Dance baby dance ..... it started off at 12:30 ........ I was completely taken back by the crowd ....... awesome ........ and it was not jus Indians so many other community people ......... so many arab youngsters ...... then there was this Indian guy with his GF who I guess was either Chinese/Korean/Japanese. She was awesome specially with wot she was wearing ...... a white spaghetti top and boxer shorts. Yes, I have one of them (of course the boxer shorts n not Spaghetti top). Okay I excuse her, she doesn't know nuthin about holi. but gurl don't try this if you are in India for holi. Her boy he was in a thick T-shirt, Jeans, fancy sports shoes and with gelled hair..... that showed, he too was new to this Holi thing ...... I can't re-collect anyone who dressed up like these people for holi ........ (or am I obsolete). Plus they were doing a close intimate dance as if other 2000 ppl werent there .......... We were dancing away to the music too ....... within no time it was 3:30 and we were tired n hungry ......... we left the floor and went towards where Sarkar ka cousin was................... We knew wot we were missing a group .....we discussed about that on our way to the cafeteria .......
I called up one of my office friends to check wot they were up to .... only to find out they were at the party and they to were taking a break ....... glad to find friends around .....we didnt have much went directly back to the floor as soon as possible...... to join them .......... and boy we threw one person at a time on the floor which was flooded with dirt water and splashed water on that person till he was drenched .........My turn was 1st but I didnt spare others too...... more dancing .....more colours ......some of them had glitters gold, silver, blue and god knows wot ....... one of my friend also had Ink ....... Next thing I knew was Ink on my face and teeth ........ believe me it tastes bad ..... after some time my friends left and sarkar told me his cousin too was leaving ...... I told him to go and get our spare clothes from his car ...... and he could keep it in my office but then he said "Chod yaar" and I was like "Okay, but pappu can't dance Saala(dats the song that was playing then), c'mmon dance, dance, dance."
Finally people were leaving and the dance floor had some space to move around .....and the songs too were being repeated ......... that is the time we left the dance floor it was around 5:30 ..... on our way out we were staring/gaping at every piece of beauty around and completely ignoring the beasts around them ...... as soon as we were out .... a fight started neways it was quickly resolved ....... and no it wasnt for a gurl ....... it was purely between 2 guy gangs ........Surprising (atleast for me)
then we stepped outta that place only to realize, we were completely wet from head to toe ...... we didnt have spare clothes, we didnt have a car to get back to our place ....... Sarkar was like "taxi pakad lenge" I didnt even feel like responding but I told him politely "Halat dekhi hai apni" (hoping and praying please don't ask Kyu?? this time)
He understood and none of us had any clue wot to do ....... I told him we cud try my office ........ we couldnt find any office vehicle around ...... neways I went towards my desk to find the QS ppl working .....both Filipinos..... and they went crazy seeing me .......they inquired about this fest ....... one of them repeated Holi 3 times as if he was trying to memorize the name and date (In his mind he would have been like next year same date I ll be doing this)
I searched My table and to my luck I found a lost pullover in one of the drawers ...... I went to the toilet and changed. As for Vaibhav he had no option ...... then I called up for taxi from my mobile .....hoping the taxi guy wouldn't mind wet clothes.... then I asked Vaibhav if his cousin could pick us up again ..... but he said that his cousin stayed too far and won't come .......... So I called up Jaya who was sleeping in our room ........ and asked him to get us some clothes just in case the taxi driver refuses to take us ....... immediately I received a a missed call from a unknown number and I was happy cause I knew it was the taxi driver ..... and he was there ........ it was a miracle .... only if U lived in Dubai will u realize that it was a miracle ........ (normally they won't come and if you are really lucky they come after an hour)
It was a Pathan driver and luckily he didnt even say a word and he opened the lock and let us in ........... I was shocked ......... am I dreaming ...(I called up jaya right away and asked him not to come, he had already left the house but didnt get a taxi luckily) ....... the taxi driver asked us wot we were doing like this we told him we were celebrating holi ...... he said "woh kya hota hai?" .......dat is wen I realized that Holi is an Indian fest .....This is how I explained it to him .........bhaijaan ..... Amitabh Bachan maluum hai? ....... he said "ha" ....... woh gaana gaata hai aur rekha pe rang lagata hai ....... woh holi hai ....... and he asked "yeh har saal hota hai?" laughing I said "ha har saal hota hai" ...... then he looked at my jeans and said "tum geela hai...... humara seat kharab ho gayega" ...... I told him I was sitting on plastic sheet (which I had picked up from office scrap) ..... he didnt say much ........ I tipped him AED 6 for this kind gesture .......
Now I am realizing ....... that females actually feel very damn safe in Dubai .......The law is so strict here that the guys won't dare misbehave ....... this is a good thing about Dubai ...... no wonder the crowd were enjoying without interfering with the couples or gurls ...... I finally found the answer to why this whole dress up thing was new to me ......... cause I am new to Dubai Holi........
This is a very good thing about this place ........... Today I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dubai administration for this (a break from cribbing about the place)..... It was a wonderful day........ Holi spirit ....... that too In an Islamic country (bhaang was missing but dats fine)
No comments:
Post a Comment