If you're clued into the western music scene, you’ve heard of Pharrell Williams and have also heard his chartbuster song Happy. Well Pharrell Willaims was in India over Holi and it would appear that he was far from happy! It got me thinking – what do foreigners think of the festival of Holi?
The Happy artiste tweeted this about celebrating the festival of colour while in India – an Adidas event to be hosted by Ranveer Singh on the day of Holi.
Clearly this was timed to coincide with a product launch; namely the Holi themed Adidas shoes that release on 16th March.
It was a party and everyone seemed to be having a great time – everyone but poor Williams that is. He appeared to be fairly miserable.
Not so much! The Happy singer did not seem at all happy.
Was he having a bad reaction to bhang? Was he homesick? Couldn’t he have at least pretended to be interested in Indian culture? These and other questions swirled around.
Notwithstanding how miserable Williams looked on his Holi outing, other firangs seem to enjoy their Holi. In fact Holi seems to be quite a draw for foreign tourists looking for exotic party/cultural experiences.
Many foreign tourists can be seen looking for the authentic but safe Holi experience. Cities such as Jaipur, Mathura and Varanasi seem to attract a lot of tourists from abroad at this time.
Goa being one of the most popular destination for foreign tourists, foreigners are seen celebrating the festival of colour here as well. Azad Maidan in Panaji, beaches like Baga, Calangute, Colva are witness to quite a bit of Holi colour.
One tourist from abroad described her experiences with Holi as ‘unmissable’. In her write up, she describes the festival as “Holi is for making memories, not photos! To truly enjoy Holi, one should leave everything behind and experience it without worry”
An estimated one lakh people celebrated Holi at the Radhe Krishna ISKCON Temple, Spanish Fork, Utah in the United States at a single venue. According to some, this was the single largest Holi celebration in the world and this video goes viral around this time each year. It seems to me that firangs love Holi with the exception of Pharrell Williams that is!
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