'Natural' Holi flops

By Lakshmi Balakrishnan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 9.

Would you rather have red sandalwood or dry red hibiscus smeared on your face or go for the customary carcinogenic mercury sulphite this Holi? The Delhi Ministry of Environment had left the choice to Delhiites. And strangely enough, most of those who opted for the first will spend the festival ``naturally'', but without colour.

The Delhi Government's ``Khelo Holi Naturally'' campaign had a lot of parents seeing red in the Capital today. Finding the ``resplendent reds'' , ``sunny yellows'' and ``magnificent magentas'' was not an easy task for most. Simply put, the campaign seemed to be more on paper than in practice.

And those who took the Environment Ministry's ads that directed them towards Dilli Haat seriously returned disappointed. The ``out of stock'' board was what greeted most at Dilli Haat and booklets on preparing herbal colours at home was all that was available.

``My daughter dragged me all the way from my office to this place as she wanted to play only with natural colours. The Government should not have publicised so much if they did not have the necessary stocks,'' rued Ms Singh, a bank official.

Being manufactured and sold by Navdanya, a Delhi-based NGO, the day saw families coming from as far as Meerut to buy the colours, but returning empty-handed. Many of the organisation's members were of the view that the Delhi Government had gone overboard with its campaign.

``The Environment Ministry had told us about the pamphlets that it was bringing out. We were not even aware of the newspaper ads till some customers told us. We were obviously not prepared for such a heavy demand,'' a Navdanya member said.

Being sold since March 3, Navdanya officials say the colours have been selling like hot cakes despite their high price. But despite Navdanya working overtime to produce extra packets, lack of planning has resulted in the supply being well short of demand.

Although natural colours are available in some upmarket areas like Khan Market, not many seemed to be aware. And even those who were, did not seem sure about the authenticity of these colours, and not without reason.

`` Most natural colours are a shade lighter than the synthetic ones. And to give them a touch of that popular shade, a little chemical is added at times. Very few colours are cent per cent natural,'' said Mukesh Goel, the owner of Kirti Creations, a Khan Market shop that has been selling vegetable and organic colours.

The absence of an authorised laboratory that can certify these products only adds to the problem. ``I had tried to approach a dermatologist to certify my product, but without success,'' added Goel.

And so high has the demand for natural colours been that some shopkeepers were seen trying to sell even industrial dyes as herbal ones. And with no real brands to look for, picking out the genuine packet gave consumers a hard time.

Like the anti-cracker and green drive campaigns, this one too, is more or less spearheaded by children. And in the end, they were the ones that were left most disappointed. `` I guess I will not celebrate Holi this time. No way will I use synthetic colours and with my exams going on, I don't really have the time to prepare it at home,'' said 10-year-old Bonita Singh, a student of Modern School, Vasant Vihar.

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