On a chilly Saturday morning, a group of Chinese students walk up to the beach and see a bunch of ‘ghosts and witches’ (at least the way they put it!). With a puzzled look one of them, musters up the courage to ask us as to what is happening…we in reply, just pull him in, put colour on his face, smash an egg on his head and spray water on him as well!
Holi in UST…a day none of us can forget, at least not the ones present there! The day when Park n Shop ran out of its eggs and tomatoes supply, the barbeque area turned red and the sea sported a shade of rainbow. There was a moment when 10 eggs were smashed together and that too when the person was least expecting it, for instance I went and smashed an egg on friend’s head and the next thing I know is I have that slimy albumen dripping down my hair and a nice omlette on top! The water balloon fight between the two universities soared our adrenaline levels so much, that two people got thrown into the sea.
Not only the South Asian students of UST and HKU celebrate the festival of colours but our Japanese and Korean friends joined as well. There wasn’t a soul around that was clean or didn’t have eggs or tomatoes dripping through their hair; been plastered with colour and sprayed with bone chilling sea water and having done that to the others, made sure the entire Jing-bang had an awesome time celebrating holi.
The festival had more to it than just fun; it brought along for us, our fair share of embarrassment. On the way back to the halls, no one would want to enter in to the same elevator, or run a mile away on seeing either one of us, the guards asked us for our ids and the hall wardens were ready to let us in. The classic moment was when on one of the following days, a Language professor asked one of us, if he was getting married, owing to his pink nails.
Having been playing holi for hours to the effect that left all of us tired, shivering and unrecognizable! The perfect end to the day was having finger licking butter chicken or butter paneer and butter dripping naans. That was my first holi at UST, a celebration I had least expected being 2000 miles away from India…I already can’t wait for the next one!
