Chinese 'Pichkaris' or Herbal Gulal: It's All About Celebrating Holi


Bangalore: As winter is slowly wrapping up and spring enters the Indian soil, its time to come out of our cushion and enjoy the most celebrated festival in India. Yes you guessed it right, its Holi time!! It is among the oldest festivals of India and have many mythological stories which explains the significance of Holi. The most popular stories of Holi origin relates to 'Holika Dahan' and Legend of Radha-Krishan.

'Holika Dahan', which is in fact lighting of bonfires represents the victory of good over evil. The story of Radha and Krishana is strongly associated with this custom of colours on Holi. Young Krishna had once applied color on his beloved Radha as he was jealous of her extremely fair skin. Following this very old story, lovers still date long to color their beloved expressing their love.

Tihar Herbal Gulal

Edible-grade herbal 'gulal' in vibrant shades made and packaged by inmates of Tihar, Asia's largest jail are much in demand for the festival of Holi.

"The demand for herbal colours has shot up to 1,00,000 units this year from a mere 5000-6000 units in 2010 when we began manufacturing such colours," says Sadhvi Jaya Bharti of the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan, the biggest NGO in Tihar jail complex engaged in rehabilitation and reforms programmes.

Those queueing up to buy the packaged colours fashioned from maize and flour starch and sold at 25 to 30 outlets in the city include corporate buyers. "We have had a very good response this year regarding sales of the herbal colours," says Sunil Gupta, PRO, Tihar Jail. The colours all handmade are skin friendly and are not detrimental to health because they do not contain any heavy metals and are lab tested.

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