Woke up at 7 today. Ashu had asked some of us to come to his place in Juhu for Gokul Ashtami aka Janmashtami. This as far as I remember from my childhood is the celebration of the god Krishna. Krishna as a child was known to steal the cream that was kept in a clay pot suspended from the rafters.

That tradition continues.

A clay pot is suspended from a rope tied at varying heights. In some parts of India they can be almost 7 floors high, it's quite impressive. Almost every year injuries are announced in the newspapers. Some of the difficult ones even have a cash prize involved. In the villages, the Pola or the harvest festival is celebrated in which bullocks are bathed, decorated and taken out in a procession to the accompaniment of beating drums.

Back to Ashu’s, where the reality was quite different.

So I woke at 7, headed over the the gym, which I had been ignoring for the duration of my stay in Hyderabad. After a good workout, I headed back, woke Tricia, made some smoked chicken and cheese grilled sandwiches, some coffee and by 9:30, we were at Ashu's. As we ride in, we realise not much had happened. Ashu was still asleep.

Then started the fun. Two huge 70 litre barrels came out of nowhere and were quickly filled with bore-well water. Then a dude started climbing trees and ropes were tied to them. Bruno, Venkat's nemesis was leashed to a pole that was guaranteed to hold buffalos. Bruno tries to catch all the water thrown at him with his tongue, while Ashu's other dog, Super, is petrified of the wet stuff. He is ferocious chap who gets really rankled when hears the thumping engines of our bikes.

Soon there were tons of people there. Venkat got there about 2 hours late with Rashmi, his photographer neighbour. She had a good Cannon, though I've always maintained that Nikon/Nikkor camera bodies/lenses are superior, but that is a matter of much contention. Aastik asked me... nope, demanded that I get off my ass and help around if I expected to get lunch. I sprung into action tying bananas and oranges to the rope in a very ungainly manner. A banana fell of the rope which was immediately blamed on me. Sometime during this, Nikhil arrived. He used to be Ashu's neighbour and now he's mine (neighbour that is).

At this point Tricia was still trying to get to her 100% and failing quite badly. Then were all called to help Ashu's dad (Ashok) string the pot full of yogurt and money... money??? Yeah man. Money. We put notes and coins into the mixture. And don't worry; the notes were in tiny little plastic bags. It took a while to tie the pot up correctly and get it in the right position with everybody pitching in.

We were all called indoors for the prayer ceremony. It took a while, but as soon as that finished, Ashu's relatives brought in buckets of water and threw it as hard as they could at the congregation. We were told it was going to be wet... and how! Then we all danced at more water was thrown at us. As if the buckets could not hold enough water, hoses were brought in. We were drenched. Venkat tried to hide, but after a while he got the brunt of the water chucking. These were water wars of a totally different nature.

Tricia and Rashmi watched the proceedings from a safe distance. Tricia's excuse was that she had to get to work and when she gives me the look, I quake in my boots :) Rashmi an amateur photographer was using this event as her homework, so did not want her camera wet. Tricia left at about 1:30pm for work. She was sad to miss out on the pot (handi) breaking.

Then another prayer started and halfway through that, everybody walked out to the porch. Ashu's dad climbed onto another person's back and took the coconut kept on top of the pot and broke it. And after that it was a sight to see. 30-35 wet people were on all fours scrambling for the money and then holding it up like an enemy scalp. Was quite amusing for me, watching from a distance.

Then the kids reached up for the fruits on the rope. They were helped by the adults. Bruno poor chap was leashed through the entire proceedings, and was quite unhappy about it. He is usually left to his own devices. Then ensued, more water throwing. Rashmi was cornered by Aastik and after keeping her camera safely, she was drenched. She left soon after.

By now all of us were completely soaked to the bone and it was a cooler day. One of Ashu's colleagues was freezing for some reason, but the rest of us weren't drying up fast enough. We chatted while the meal was set up. The first round of people ate, while we watched very sadly. Then came our turn. The food was really good. We had puri, bhaji, aduvali, some dal with okra, shrikhand, peas, bitter gourd among other things.

We then hung out for a while. Nikhil left. Venkat and I sat around, chatting with Aastik and Ashu. Aastik quietly slink away to catch up on his 40 winks. Ashu looked drained too, considering he had slept 12 hours the previous night.

Venkat and I rode off to my place to meet up with some other friends for some work, which is another story.

Dinner was really good. We went to Millat Nagar, the Muslim housing society. I am of the belief that the Muslims in each state cook the best food. Kerala, West Bengal, Orissa, UP, MP, Delhi.... the list goes on. We had kababs for dinner. The bill for the 4 of us was 66 rupees. Nice huh? After all this, I picked Tricia up from work and off to bed hey ho!