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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.
by Patrix | on Thursday, March 8th, 2007 at 4:16 pm | 
Environment, Health, India, Society Culture . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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March 8th, 2007 at 6:39 pm reply
I had written a post last year, slating the concept of Holi. Not from an environmental point of view, but from a viewpoint that displays my absolute contempt for the festival. (Call me spoilsport or whatever, I hate Holi!)
March 8th, 2007 at 8:18 pm reply
I enjoyed Holi as a child, but mostly considered it a nuisance as an adult - especially those hard to get off colors you mentioned.
But Pat, didn’t you know that by following our venerated traditions, we are actually purifying everything !
March 9th, 2007 at 8:29 am reply
Piker, I can totally understand why someone would hate Holi. Certain limits can be crossed and more often than not, they are. BTW your blog is messed up…small font and all.
Bongo, heh. Isn’t it weird how we tend to dislike the things we loved as a kid…they even have a word for it - generation gap. BTW, if I told my mom I was purifying everything by coming into the house drenched in Holi colors, she would wallop my ass.
March 9th, 2007 at 12:40 pm reply
About the blog being messed up, I got that shock sometime yesterday. It happened once. I don’t know why. I opened it on IE7 came out ok and then opened it on Firefox and it turned out fine. Weird thing though.