Follow-up to the previous post

Before you read this post, please read the previous post, if you haven't already.

A few questions have come up regarding my "arrest":

Q: Why did the police seek you out, and why did they want to hotel-arrest you?

A: There are two possibilities.

1. They were looking for a bribe. They probably thought I would offer them money to be freed. And yes, this thought crossed my mind at the time. However, I did not have any money on me--any cash surely would have been rendered unusable in the water-and-colors-throwing. In any case, I had no way to replenish my supply of cash, since my wallet and thus my ATM cards had been lost the week earlier, and I was down to Rs 200 ($4). (Mom, don't worry, this was more than enough to get me home--I only spent 60 of those rupees--and I have since gone to the bank in Delhi to get more cash.)

2. They wanted to exert their power over someone. And I was an easy target, being a foreigner and all.

But to be totally honest, I really have absolutely no idea. I didn't do anything wrong!

Q: How did the police find you?

A: Many people in Bikaner knew I was headed to Lakshminathji Mandir, because I had asked around where the best place for women to celebrate Holi was, and everyone gave this same answer. Once I decided this was the place to go, I asked several people for directions. And everyone within earshot eavesdrops when a foreigner speaks, especially when she's speaking in Hindi (even if it's nothing more than "Where is Lakshminathji Mandir?" and "Is it this way or that way?"). So probably a few dozen people knew I was headed to this temple. I'm assuming someone "reported" me, or something.

Q: Weren't you scared? You seem deceptively calm in your description of events.

A: No, I wasn't scared. What was there to be afraid of? That they were going to put me in jail? Nope, they had no grounds for that. That the male police officers offering me bhang in the back of a jeep would molest me or worse? No way, because they would be afraid of me reporting that to the media. They just wanted to have a little fun with a foreigner, but they weren't going to actually do anything to me. Besides, the whole situation was so ridiculous I couldn't stop laughing in my head (even though I was pissed).

Q: Show us the turban-helmet picture!

A: Ok. Here it is:

that kurta (and my skin) used to be white. and that turban is, apparently, a helmet.

More Bikaner and Holi pictures to come, in a later post.