During Holi time I was in Dharmshala and planned a small trip to Palampur with one of my friend and got a chance to visit a popular Holi Mela in a small town called Ghuggar... Although I had never heard of this mela but after reaching Palampur many folks asked me to go there.. When I had to come back to Chandigarh, we had few hrs to spend around Palampur and planned a quick visit to Ghuggar to see what happens there... Here are few photographs clicked through Mobile Camera during a span of 15 minutes there.. Check out colors of Ghuggar, Palampur !!!
Ram and Lakshman having wonderful ride on shoulders of Bajrangbali @ Ghuggar, Palampur , Himachal Pradesh
Just after parking our car, we headed towards the main market of Ghuggar, from where the Holi fair starts !!! Suddenly a huge crowd was moving towards us and we were worried about the time it would take to clear the road, as we had to go to Palampur back in next 20 minutes... We decided to park the car near other road to minimize the risk :)
After seeing this rally I was wondering how big this mela is going to be... by looking at the population of surrounding areas and crowd present in the fair, I concluded it as a huge mela which is difficult to imagine otherwise... Although my photographs would not be able to convey that... Lighting was not that good to use Mobile Camera in better way !!!
Cute children dressed up as various characters and happy about the rath-yatra !!!
Jalebi - Main sweet of most of the melas/Fairs in Himachal Pradesh... Jalebis and pakoras are two main things which can't be missed in these Melas and we also tried these !!!
A Cute shopkeeper selling colors for upcoming Holi day !!!
Bansuri, Galgoju, Siti and some other toys arranged around a stick.. These are one of the most popular toys among boys of any age.. Almost everyone had one of these and they were making huge noise in this Mela !!! At times it was irritating but it doesn't matter after a particular point of time ...
"Handola" - This is what Himachalis call it !! One ride on this is must when you go to any such fair/mela !!!
"Lakshman Jhoola" is another name which is used in other parts of north India !!!
Overall environment in this fair was very cheerful with lots of colors of Holi... This fair starts one week before Holi and ends when Holi colors go away from our faces !!!
Instead of Jalebi and Pakoras, Children prefer to have other stuff like this !!! Even trends of games is also changing. New generation kids don't want non-electronic toys... Their eyes are always on techy toys or games which could be played on Multimedia mobiles or computers...
Packets of various colors for next day - HOLI
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