“Oh, I better stay indoors tomorrow,” said Amma grumpily.
Kavya and Kiran turned to look at her. “Why was Amma upset?” they wondered.
Just then, their Appa returned from work. “Tomorrow is a holiday, but a holiday wasted,” he sulked as he took off his shoes.
Now Kavya and Kiran were puzzled.
“But…tomorrow is a special holiday!”said Kavya.
“Tomorrow is Holi!” said Kiran.
“Tomorrow we play with COLOURS with our friends and family!” said Kavya. “It will be so much fun!”
“I don’t like those colours,” said Amma.
“But why?” asked Meera.
“The colour is not good for you,” said Amma.
“It has chemicals and can spoil your skin and eyes,” explained Appa.
“That’s why we need to stay at home,” continued Amma.
“So nobody puts colour on you,” concluded Appa.
Disappointment
Kavya and Kiran were sad. They wanted to play Holi. They had learnt in school that Holi was the festival of colour and that it signified the start of spring. They had been looking forward to it.
Kavya and Kiran looked at each other glumly and sat on the steps. Suddenly Kavya had an idea.
“Let’s make our own colours with no chemicals,” said Kavya.
“Let’s try!” echoed Kiran.
“That’s a great idea!” said Amma.
Amma and the children looked up on the net and found ways to make herbal Holi colours.
“Look,” said Amma, “to make yellow powder, we need to take besan and mix it with turmeric powder and a little bit of water, and then let it dry in the sun. Yellow powder is ready for Holi. Looks simple!”
“Wow,” cheered Kavya and Kiran.
“There are instructions for many other colours,” noted Amma.
Next Appa and the kids went to the market and came back with a lot of things.
“Beetroot for pink and henna for orange,” said Kavya.
“Spinach for green and turmeric for yellow,” added Kiran.
The family worked together to get all the colours ready. Amma boiled pieces of beetroot in a cup of water and watched the water turn pink. “Look at that dark pink colour,” squealed Kiran in delight.
Next Kiran and Kavya soaked henna leaves in a bucket of water. “We better leave it for a couple of hours, it will turn orange,” said Kiran.
Then with the help of Appa they made a fine paste of the spinach leaves and put that in a bucket of water.
“This is fun,” said Kavya and Kiran. “Pink, orange, green and yellow — we made it all on our own!”
“Tomorrow we will share our colours with our friends and play together. I can’t wait!” said Kavya.
“What better way to enjoy a nature festival than by using the colours of nature,” said Amma.
“Is tomorrow still a wasted holiday, Appa?” asked Kiran, mischievously.
“It will be if we don’t get down to making sweets,” laughed Appa hugging his family.
“Happy Holi!” they said.
