Nerve Endings Firing Away

I guess I missed the bus on mentioning Holi or wishing my readers a happy Holi-day, which incidentally wasn’t where I live (ok! ghissa-pita joke.) It really doesn’t matter because I think most of my readers live on this side of the Atlantic anyway (readers in India, this is the time to prove me wrong.) But honestly, I’ve never been a sucker for Holi. Yeah, I loved all the colors, water balloons, and dunking in the local pond but I was never super-excited about the festival. Perhaps it was the ‘good and disciplined child’ in me that refused to partake in un-blase fun.

I have never chugged a glass of bangh or roamed the streets colored in all hues of shocking pink (now that would be one hell of a sight), or embarked on a mission to steal firewood from our neighbors for the community fire. But I have seen all the above in movies so I bet it must be true. Add to that, a maast song dance with ample amounts of color exploding mysteriously only to end with a band of dacoits crashing your party. But I digress.

The colors of Holi while I was growing up got increasingly metallic and florescent. These weren’t your typical gulal but rather industrial-strength synthetic dyes that refused to come off even after two weeks of bathing regularly. Incidentally, the people colored thus wore them quite proudly regardless of the fact that it made them look like morons once Holi was a distant memory. Years of educative enlightenment later, I also realized that behind all the fun and masti, we were actually doing a lot of harm to the environment (not to mention our delicate skin). According to trusted sources in the Not-So-White House, the Holi colors were the secret reason behind “yeh teri tvacha ko kya hua…ab bol I don’t care” conundrum.

Before you scream, let’s kill the freaking spoilsport environmentalist and feign ignorance, you must look around you on Holi day to see what I mean. Tons of firewood being burnt for no apparent reason (it is not that cold either in many parts of India), gallons of precious potable water splashed around in childish games that often lead to rowdyism and street harassment, and the psychedelic impossible-to-imagine-they-exist colors – all strutted around under the name of tradition.

I’m not pulling this out of my ass (although you should see the color I shit after Holi), Toxics Links, an Indian environmental group (yup! they actually exist) report on the ugliness pollution-wise of the colorful world of Holi [PDF link] point out that the dyes used in colors contain “lead oxide, copper suphate, aluminum bromide, mercury suphite, cadmium, chromium and lead” among other chemicals that would put Hogwarts Class of Magic Potions to shame. I got this off a recent post made by WorldChanging that brings out attention to plenty such disconcerting facts that we tend to ignore under the guise of tradition and fun. But the best part of that post was a link to yet another environmental group, Kalpavriksh who offer tips on making non-toxic and completely natural colors:

Mix haldi powder with besan for a lovely yellow. *Slice a beetroot and soak in water for a deep pink. *Boil Marigold or Tesu flowers in water for yellow colour. The other easy way to get a yellow liquid colour is to soak peels of pomegranate (Anar) overnight. *For an orange red paste, henna leaves (mehndi) can be dried, powdered and mixed with water.

Definitely lot of mehnat but who says, caring for your environment comes easy. And if you are planning on playing Holi with haldi (turmeric), you better not step into your home until you are scrubbed clean. There are plenty of other tips to make natural colors if you care. Holi is just one of the environmental disasters we indulge in every year – the sound and air pollution during Diwali and the dirty mess we make of our beaches during Ganpati celebrations – are just another two examples. I am not trying to be a killjoy here but a little concern not just for the environs that you live in but also for your personal health goes a long way.