Photo by: Abdulmajed Saud
HELL YES…. and no. This is a tricky question. Originally, the
powdered color used was made from natural ingredients such as flowers,
leaves, henna, flour etc. everything was nontoxic. However with the growing
popularity of the festival and the amount of color needed it became difficult to
produce this amount using purely organic materials. So companies began to
make color through a chemical process. Some materials used are copper
sulphate (to make green), chromium iodide (purple), mercury sulfate (red)
and many more chemicals for the plethora of other colors. The liquid colors
are made from an alkaline base mixed with unknown compounds. Makes us
wish we’d paid better attention in Chemistry.
Bad news: while celebrating, you will get a mixture of semi-toxic and
natural colors. Good news: it takes prolonged exposure and ridiculous
amounts of color for these chemicals to be harmful. But do keep in mind, your
sensitivity may be different from your fellow travelers. (While in Pushkar, no
one in our group experienced any issue with the color, but over years of regular
exposure these chemicals can have damaging effects on the skin and
respiratory system.) If you wish to go as natural as possible, we suggest
Pushkar for the Holi celebration. Most of the shops there were selling
homemade organic powder,
but as you go to the bigger
cities you will see the
opposite trend. It is
a bit risky, but
Carpe Diem right?
TOXIC
IS
THIS
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