Travel News, March, 2007

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Elephant festival enthrals tourists in Jaipur

          Jaipur: In celebration of Holi , dozens of colourfully dressed up pachyderms enthralled visitors at the Elephant carnival in the Pink City. The carnival is held a day before Holi every year since the royal times. Around 40 well-decorated elephants formed a part of the traditional event at the Chaugan Stadium. Well-groomed elephants walked past thousands of Indian and foreign tourists. The elephants also ran races and played the royal game of polo to entertain the visitors. "This is great. I had been planning to come to India for two- three months to Jaipur, just for the Holi festival. So, my plan has finally been fulfilled and I am extremely excited," said Nathan, an American tourist. The elephant owners start preparing months in advance for the event. Around 80,000 rupees is spent by the owners in decking up the animals for the final show.

         A variety of cultural programmes also form a part of the special Holi celebrations. Towards the end of the celebrations tourist were invited to play Holi atop the elephants. Tourists were seen enjoying the experience as they threw colours on each another. "It's brilliant. Obviously, the colours are just marvelous and I got a special outfit made for Holi," said Cathy Rose, a tourist. "It is fantastic. We really loved the elephant and having the colours. We won an elephant prize. The experience of riding an elephant is very good, very good colours and it is good fun," said Johanna, another tourist. Celebrated in the month of Fagun (February-March) according to the Hindu calendar, Holi is associated with expression of uninhibited love and affection, and brings together people from all classes and age groups, who distribute sweets and take out processions, dancing to tunes of drums in a milange of colours.
-March 4,  2007