Four tents, a dozen squirt guns and more than 50 students chasing each other with paint and water balloons - the India Students Association celebrated Holi in style Saturday.
"It's the Festival of Colors," said Krishna Chaitanya, president of the ISA. "There's no festival quite like it in the United States."
The excited crowd on Johnson Field was quickly covered in purple, green, yellow and blue powdered dye, and clouds of pink-tinged flour rose in the breeze.
The wind picked up as the energy surrounding Holi did, and the event ended in a rainstorm.
"There aren't enough of these kinds of events," Chaitanya said. "We want to say that a party doesn't have to just be going to clubs and drinking. You can have fun doing these things, too."
The group cooled down with refreshments like coconut milk, donated by Talin Market.
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Manjeet Kailey, owner of Taj Palace, donated food for the event but said he wished he could have been there to celebrate as well.
"Holi is a great festival for welcoming spring," he said. "I'm glad they're doing it."
Niranjan Kumar, the general secretary for ISA, said Holi is not considered a religious festival in India.
"It's different from Diwali, the Festival of Lights, where you offer prayers in the morning and celebrate with fireworks in the evening," Kumar said. "ISA will do that in October, but we'll also do things like sports events and picnics."
ISA Vice President Tosifa Memon said she was excited to celebrate the traditionally Hindu festival of Holi, though she is a Muslim.
"It's just to have fun - that's what we want," she said. "You don't have to be Hindu or even Indian. We want everyone to join in."
The ISA, which started in 1990, organized the Holi event to let students know they are still a vibrant club, though they were mostly inactive last year, Chaitanya said.
"Only two Indian students came to UNM last year," Kumar said. "But this semester there are around 40, including Ph.D. students."
Chaitanya said the leadership committee of the ISA is composed mainly of graduate students, but there are also three undergraduates, including Memon.
The timing of this event was strategically planned to get as many new students involved as possible, Kumar said.
The group will also hold a Desi Night on Aug. 15 to welcome freshmen, he said.
Memon said that event will give new students a taste of what Indian culture is like.
"It's a get-together for the Indian community and people from different communities so they can see what Indian culture is; we'll have music and henna," Memon said. "It's to get new people involved. If they need help getting settled, it's good to meet other people."
Chaitanya said Desi Night will be one of many events with a similar aim.
"Our main goal is to mix cultures," Chaitanya said. "Everyone is invited, and we want to collaborate with other groups for bigger events."
Chaitanya said he would like to work with Middle Eastern and European student organizations, not just within the Indian community.
"In India we have events where we are all there with our family, so even if you are in other places for the festivals, you're supposed to get together and celebrate. All of us UNM students are kind of like a big family," Chaitanya said.
Kumar agreed that this spirit of inclusion is a major part of ISA.
"We're culturally very diverse, but festivals like this bring us together," Kumar said, as he smudged pink and green paint on my face.
