Sen: Hello and welcome to our podcast English Trips. I’m Sen, and I’ll give you expert guidance on how to make the most of these episodes as a language learning tool.

Our destination for today is India!

Are you learning English at the moment? Then this podcast is perfect for you. In each episode, we’ll take a virtual trip to a different part of the English-speaking world, where you’ll hear a real story from a real person… in English, of course!

Each episode focuses on a specific part of the language, such as a grammar topic. But don’t worry, this isn’t a grammar podcast. The main thing is that our stories are fun and interesting, and they also get you more comfortable with understanding the language!

And did you know that you can read along while you listen using our dynamic transcript? You’ll find the link in our show notes. Here’s a tip just for you: the first time you listen to the episode, follow along with the transcript. This will help you understand more of the story, and identify any difficult words or expressions. Then, listen a second, or even third time without the transcript, and see how much more you understand!

We’re going to take a look at three important little words today – in, on and at. We use these words a lot when we talk about places. We use in when we talk about places with a boundary, like a country, city or building. On is mostly used to speak about surfaces, like on the street or on my body. And finally, we use at when talking about specific places, like at the neighborhood community center. Keep your ears open and listen for some more examples of how these words are used in today’s episode!

We’ve got a really colorful story for you today. We’re heading to Bathinda, in the north of India, to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi with Tanya. By the end of the story, you’ll know exactly why they call Holi The Festival of Colors!

Tanya: Hi, I'm Tanya. I'm from India. I was born there, and lived there until I was 23 years old. My father was in the military, so my family and I lived in a lot of different places in India.

I lived in the north, the south, in big cities and small towns. I saw many different sides of this incredibly diverse country.

The British ruled India for almost 200 years, and English was the only official language.

In 1947, India won its independence and many regional languages became more important.

Today, English is still an official language, but now there are more than 20 other official languages, too. There's Hindi, Tamil, Kashmiri, Punjabi and many more.

There’s also a lot of cultural diversity in India! For example, people follow many different religions. There are Catholics, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists. But the biggest religion in India is Hinduism.

Today, I’m going to tell you about my favorite Indian holiday, the Hindu festival of Holi.

Holi is a celebration of new life, the end of winter and the beginning of springtime. It's a time for everyone to relax and have fun for a whole day. People eat, drink and dance in their homes and on the street.

Holi is also called The Festival of Colors. Why? Well, groups of children go around “coloring” other groups of young people. They use colored powder and colored water in water guns and water balloons to paint other people.

It’s a bit like a war, and, at the end, everyone looks like a rainbow. It’s really fun!

When I was 12 years old, I celebrated Holi in Bathinda. It’s a city in Punjab, in northern India.

I woke up early, and put on my oldest, dirtiest clothes. The paint isn’t permanent, but it’s best to be safe. I was so excited. Holi was always my favorite day!

I went out on the street to find my friends, and we prepared our arsenal. When we were ready, we went to look for our first victims.

There was another group of kids at the neighborhood community center. We saw them, and attacked!

We threw our balloons. They sprayed us with colored water. We laughed, screamed and ran around like crazy. Finally, one of the other boys threw a whole bucket of purple water on me. There was paint on every part of my body! It was so much fun.

We played the whole day, and then it was time to go home. I arrived at my house, and my mother looked at me and said, “You are super purple. Go take a shower!” So I did. And I was still purple. “That’s not normal!”, I said.

So I showered again. Nope, still purple. I showered a third time, but no luck. Still. Freaking. Purple. “What is this stuff?! Why won’t it wash off?!” Now I was worried. I ran to my mother. “I can’t wash it off! I look like an Avatar! I’m going to be purple forever!”

The next morning, I was still purple. “All the kids at school will laugh at me. I can’t go like this! It’s too embarrassing!”, I told my mother, and she said I could stay at home for the day.

I got in the bathtub and sat there for hours. I hoped the color would go away. It didn’t. Then I remembered the boy who put the color on me. I told my mom, and we went to his house.

His mom answered the door. “Where is your son?”, my mother asked. She called her son, and he came outside, veeeeery slowly. He stood in the doorway and looked really scared.

“Why aren’t you at school?”, I asked him? Then, he showed me his hands. They were purple too. “I’m so sorry. There was a special price on some new permanent paint at the market. I didn’t know how permanent it really was!”

Unfortunately, he didn’t have any tips for washing it off. I stayed home from school that week. I was completely purple for about five days. Finally, the color went away and I wasn’t an avatar anymore.

I will always remember that Holi celebration. For me it wasn’t a festival of colors, it was a festival of one color. The Festival of Purple.

Sen: Poor Tanya! Purple for five days! I totally understand why she was so angry at that boy. But it sounds like she has a sense of humor about it now!

That’s it for this English trip. I hope you enjoyed the story as much as I did, and as always, learned a little English along the way! Just a reminder, if you want some more practice with in, on and at, check out the beginner courses in the Babbel app.

Finally, we’d love to hear what you think of the podcast. You can write us an email at podcasting@babbel.com, or simply leave a comment in your podcast app and we’ll see it. Thanks for listening, and see you next time for another exciting English trip!