[sayakc]

Happy Holi to you!

But my words are obviously dulled by the once in a lifetime experience that we can garner from these terrific photos that portray how Holi needs to be played.
These photos are so bursting with energy and bubbling with life that and demonstrate the diverse cultural fabric of India.

Hats off for the brilliant photography! And (belated) happy women's day

Cheers,
Sayak

[dmplog]

Breathtaking photos and narration. Thank you for sharing. I am curious to know the connection of GoPro here? Also, which Olympus model were they promoting?

[ketan007]

Wow...never seen this kind of celebration anywhere. The exuberant crowd and very colorful photographs. Nice post!

[headbanger]

If life flowing thru colors brewing culture amid cacophonous bliss was to be portrayed pictorially, this thread is the starting point. Emotions captured in the pics are beyond my limited vocabulary.

[Sayata]

An absolutely amazing and very a colorful travelogue. Through your lens we also have been able to see a different kind of holi celebration. Thank you Sukanya for sharing with us such a brilliant travelogue...

[Herschey]

Oh such blast of colours, such joy, such fervour, such kinship; Holi is but one effervescent celebration of the occasion we call life.

Happy Holi Everyone!

[PapaBravo]

Beautiful travelogue SB. Each frames speaks a thousand words in different colors. Must have been a very enriching experience.

Thanks for giving us a glimpse on how 'Braj ki Holi' is celebrated.

Rated 5*

Cheers,
Pawan

[mpthy]

What a beautiful, cultural, and colourful country we live in!

Thank you for sharing these amazing pictures and a wonderful travelogue.

[shashanka]

An extraordinary photologue! And kudos to you for daring to jump in at the deep end! I've lived a large part of my life in Lucknow and have not given Barsana & Nandgaon much thought. But your travelogue is definitely food for thought - that the LGBT community has been such an inclusive part of our rural fabric is mind-boggling!

[sukhbirST]

Thanks for bringing colours to a lovely travelogue which is unbelievable. Nothing can take away the efforts and damage to your camera. The joy is written all over and makes one strongly believe, life is to be lived every moment.

[NPV]

Lovely travelogue, beautifully penned down with lively pictures that bring out the riot of Holi colours, the joy and celebration, history, tradition and our culture, love, acceptance of people just the way they are without any form of discrimination, thanks so much for sharing

Happy Holi!

[ysjoy]

Hi @DogNDamsel12,
Such a marvellous and riotious Holi celebration!
awesome imagery, which transports us to the celebrations
Best,
ysjoy

[DogNDamsel12]

Originally Posted by dmplog

Breathtaking photos and narration. Thank you for sharing. I am curious to know the connection of GoPro here? Also, which Olympus model were they promoting?

Thank you! I am afraid I am not aware of the commercial arrangements, but in terms of the models and promotion, here goes -

1. Olympus was promoting their new flagship model of OM-D E-M1X. All of the Olympus cameras are splash proof. Tg-6 is waterproof.
2. GoPro was also promoting their GoPro Hero 9

Originally Posted by PapaBravo

Thanks for giving us a glimpse on how 'Braj ki Holi' is celebrated.
Rated 5*

Much humbled with that appreciation and taking the time out to rate it because I usually have to do that additional work of logging in through the laptop to be able to rate someone. So, thanks for going that extra mile for tendering your appreciation!

Originally Posted by Dhillon

Our country never stops surprising me. I never knew Holi is celebrated in such an amazing manner so close to Delhi/NCR and I have been living here for the last 18 years but I know now

Originally Posted by sayakc

These photos are so bursting with energy and bubbling with life that and demonstrate the diverse cultural fabric of India.

Originally Posted by shashanka

An extraordinary photologue! And kudos to you for daring to jump in at the deep end! I've lived a large part of my life in Lucknow and have not given Barsana & Nandgaon much thought. But your travelogue is definitely food for thought - that the LGBT community has been such an inclusive part of our rural fabric is mind-boggling!

Thank you! Yes, indeed since this was close to Delhi, I was taking it for granted until it happened in 2020! Now that I have moved from Delhi, I realise that there are so many trips closer home that I could have taken on in the last few years that are absolute once-in-a-lifetime, and also something international travellers take back with them praising India a mouthful about its colourful, cultural diversity that we Indians often miss. e.g. the fair at Pushkar, festivals at Rann in December etc. - all that I missed. And I hope to see travelogues on those.

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

Thanks for bringing colours to a lovely travelogue which is unbelievable. Nothing can take away the efforts and damage to your camera. The joy is written all over and makes one strongly believe, life is to be lived every moment.

The camera survived, but yeah I was flipped from time to time during the two days about really damaging it, especially when they specifically target and blind the women with colours (by no means an exaggeration!) But the rain-covers are a must - they have fasteners around the wrist, so one can really keep the inside of the covers dry, but it's a task, because technically you have one less hand to defend yourself.

Originally Posted by ketan007

Wow...never seen this kind of celebration anywhere. The exuberant crowd and very colorful photographs. Nice post!

Originally Posted by headbanger

If life flowing thru colors brewing culture amid cacophonous bliss was to be portrayed pictorially, this thread is the starting point. Emotions captured in the pics are beyond my limited vocabulary.

Originally Posted by Sayata

An absolutely amazing and very a colorful travelogue. Through your lens we also have been able to see a different kind of holi celebration. Thank you Sukanya for sharing with us such a brilliant travelogue...

Originally Posted by Herschey

Oh such blast of colours, such joy, such fervour, such kinship; Holi is but one effervescent celebration of the occasion we call life.
Happy Holi Everyone!

Originally Posted by mpthy

What a beautiful, cultural, and colourful country we live in!

Thank you for sharing these amazing pictures and a wonderful travelogue.

Originally Posted by NPV

Lovely travelogue, beautifully penned down with lively pictures that bring out the riot of Holi colours, the joy and celebration, history, tradition and our culture, love, acceptance of people just the way they are without any form of discrimination, thanks so much for sharing

Happy Holi!

Originally Posted by ysjoy

Hi @DogNDamsel12,
Such a marvellous and riotious Holi celebration!
awesome imagery, which transports us to the celebrations
Best,
ysjoy

Thank you everyone for spoiling me with praises on this post! Really humbled as this trip and the entire exprience and the learnings about my culture from this experience has been very close to my heart. I am certainly hoping that you do this trip as well once the threat of the virus subsides and you share your photos too!

And thank you Samba for really pushing me to write this experience down here, when I was enthusiastically bragging about it to the group!

Cheers and Happy Holi to all!
Sukanya

[DogNDamsel12]

One quick addition to the post, mods may please append appropriately to my initial posts.

The video of the cameras being rinsed after the event that really had me cringing!

https://youtu.be/GUn_XqDuXW0

[ABHI_1512]

First things first, many thanks for jotting down the whole experience and taking us through the riot of colors. These kind of immersive experiences stay with us for a long long time and I am sure, it will be the same for you too Sukanya. I have heard of this event from my friends in Delhi but your writing clearly catapulted me into a different world altogether. Vivid description of an inclusive event, thoroughly enjoyed.

Rating it the well deserved five stars, keep writing and keep travelling,

Regards.