The day before WordCamp Mumbai, India celebrated Holi, the Festival of Colors, to welcome the arrival of spring. Two other Automatticians, Prasath, Mahangu, and I were able to see a group celebrate it in a courtyard close to our hotel, so we decided to take a closer look and take a picture or two. On our way to the celebration we were stopped by a security guard unfortunately who would not let us enter, saying it was a private party and we were not allowed inside. We were a little disappointed but decided to walk around the block to see if we can find another group to take pictures.

We were almost back to our hotel when we saw a park with groups of people and took that detour. One of the groups were men who painted each others faces with India’s flag, taking pictures of one-another and having a good time. We must have looked sufficiently curious (and me unusual at 6’7″ and pale white), and as we were just about to walk past them one of the man took my hand and dragged me towards the head painter. And so this happened: