holi holi holi-day

we came to work today and learn that it is the Holi festival. fancy that. so that means little-to-no progress, but then again, that is nothing new here anyways. i know holi has a lot to do with colorful powder thrown on people. apparently in the north of india, there are huge barrels of colored water that people will pick you up and dunk you in. sounds like fun. i think it is just a covert test to see who bathes. tomorrow, if you see a guy still with powder on, dirtyass. check out emma's blog on Holi for some more details (i'm lazy and it is pretty good)... i could go for some bhang. and the indian TA onsite sent me an e-mail describing it, brief snippet of the history below:

The Puranas describe Holi as a celebration of virtue over vice. It is a time when we rejoice in the victory of pure, divine Prahlaad over his aunt Holika. The story - in a simple, condensed way - says that Prahlaad was a young, beautiful, pure, divine devotee of God. However, Prahlaad's father was a powerful king who believed that everyone should worship him. At Prahlaad's refusal to do so, due to his singleminded love of God, his father decided to have him killed. Prahlaad's aunt (his father's sister), Holika, had been given a special shawl as a boon from God for various austerities she had performed. When she wore this shawl, she could not be burned by fire. So, Prahlaad's father and his sister devised a plan in which she would wear her shawl and hold Prahlaad tightly in her arms as they sat in fire. In this way, Prahlaad would be killed, but she would emerge unscathed.

i have no clue where the colored powder comes from, but from these two pictures, i sure know where it goes. i wish i had some, i'd've DESTROYED some people. it's probably not in the vein of the festival, but it's always fun to nail unsuspecting people with powder, especially colored powder.