Easter Holi Days
The past week has been one of many cultural celebrations and festivals,
significant days, high days and holidays, a long weekend, family traditions, and special visits.
All crammed into 6 days!!!
These are the occasions that accentuate the complexity of expat life:
You look forward to the excitement of new and strange celebrations and festivals like Holi, but want to share it with your "closests" and "dearests" who are far away. They envy you, watching you experience the exotic in a far-away land.
Then there's a family birthday, like my mother's 83rd and my nephew's... uhm...... 21st? on 23 and 24 March. Oh it wasn't as exciting as your weekend, they say. It was just the family and close friends. We just went to the place where everybody knows your name, we just had the usual. Maybe an added lemon meringue pie. An extra steak or two. Nothing as exotic as what you had...
And then there's Easter...
and family traditions...
pickled fish on Good Friday
family get-togethers
surprise visits
hot cross buns
Easter eggs and egg hunts
The Easter Bunny
And we miss it. THEM.
BUT... this week was different!!!!
It was my first Holi ever. And I could share it with special loved ones!
How exciting to be in incredible colourful India during Holi,
hobnobbing with the rich and famous from Hollywood and Bollywood!
The crowds outside Amitabh Bachchan's house in Juhu, where he steps outside on Sundays to wave to the crowds :)
The crowds outside Amitabh Bachchan's house in Juhu, where he steps outside on Sundays to wave to the crowds :)
Yes, we really saw her. She was lounging at the pool at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a few loungers away from us. We shared this view with her:
She came moments after I took this shot and chose the lounger on the far left:
Then we went up to our room to change for sundowners.
And then we went down to the famous Harbour Bar since 1933 and had the famous Harbour Bar 1933 cocktail.
It was quite a show of which we understood very little. But enjoyed the performance with lots of smiles and nods.
We didn't see Courtney at the Bar.
Upstairs, Wasabi was waiting :)
Seated at the Teppanyaki counter, we reminisced about our beloved Teppanyaki place in Taiwan, put Japan on our bucket list, and admired each perfect dish as it came to the table.
Easter Monday was spent hanging out at a local train station,
pun intended
to catch the famous tiffin walas,
eating street food,
and gaining a renewed respect for very hard-working people.
A very humbling experience.
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