Happy Holi! Today is the Indian holiday of Holi Festival, and is promising to be huge fun at the ashram. We leave early, about 9 am. All the shops are closed, and people are already on the streets covered in the paint that they throw on each other for this celebration.

At the ashram, a tent of colorful fabrics and decorations has been erected in the courtyard. The kids are off school for the holiday and full of energy. Some already have colored powder all over their hair and faces. Speakers are set up and music blares as a group of boys dances around us. Babu, Papa's son, comes over with a bowl of yellow powder. "Happy Holi!" he exclaims as he presses a smudge of yellow on each of our foreheads.

The children are called to sit under the tent, and the program begins. First there is music and singing, as Papa tells us what each song means. Next there is a play, put on by a group of the boys. It's funny, even without understanding the words. The boys are so dramatic and play every second for a laugh.

Next on the program are traditional dance performances by Santa, Sangeeta, Charu, Meena, Saraswati and Taru. Their costumes, jewelry and face paint are spectacular and their dance routines complex and lovely.

Once the performances are over, holi is played in earnest. It's no holds barred with the colors. Four male staff members walk into the courtyard, covered head to toe in magenta. They come to each of us in turn, smearing the dark pink powder on our cheeks and noses. One gives Chandler a mustache. With that, the children go crazy. Handfuls of the yellow, green, orange and pink powders are grabbed from bowls set out, and color is everywhere. We chase each other down, smearing color on faces and in hair. Water guns are brought out, shooting colored water. All the while the speakers are blaring a favorite song - "Just Chill!" But the kids are anything but chilling.

Soon we are all covered. We point at each other and laugh. I look at Madhu, one of the teachers and house mother. She is completely purple - only her eyes are showing. She's laughing hard as she tries to get the kids who painted her. Even Papa is smeared with yellow and orange. When the powders are gone, everyone lines up for watermelon and sweets. Soon a hundred people are sitting in the couryard, covered in paint and slurping watermelon.