[kannan]

Holi, the festival of colours is popular in North India, where people smear each other with loads of powdered colours and throw coloured water at each other.
These coloured powders usually contain special herbs such as henna (maruthani), margosa (veppilai / neem), kumkum, turmeric (manjal /haldi), and bilva (vilvam / bel).
Gulal can be made at home by mixing red sandalwood powder with a little flour (maida or atta). Red coloured water can be made by boiling red sandalwood powder with water.
Bright yellow powder is obtained by mixing turmeric powder and gram flour (Besan / kadalai mavu). Mix the paste of green leafy vegetables in water to get green coloured water. Plain henna powder mixed in water will give a vibrant orange colour. Mix henna powder and gooseberry (amla / nellikkai / peru nelli) powder in water for a bright brown colour. Synthetic dyes and colours sold in the markets sometimes have a very harsh and toxic effect as they contain dangerous toxins such as lead and mercury. Therefore buy only skin friendly natural colours.