Bhopal, Mar 19: The festival of Holi is round the corner. One cannot imagine Holi celebrations without fun and mischief. There is tradition of applying colour on the occasion of Holi. People apply colours to each other freely on this festival. Sometimes, the colour may prove harmful to other person's skin and hygiene. This fear is quite obvious. People find it very difficult to avoid colours on Holi, as there is social pressure on them.

But, one need not overly worry about this issue as Holi can be celebrated with herbal colours, which are safe to use and would make you enjoy the excitement of Holi, totally. These colours are easily available in the market in different brands and at affordable prices for all age groups.

What shopkeepers say

Arif Ansari, who does wholesale business of colours says, 'we have all types of colours out of which herbal colours are being made available looking at the special demand. He says, 'There is a limited demand for herbal colours as very few people know about their utility. Generally, people ask for branded colours'.

'We have all types of varieties of colours at our shop in which Herbal colour, granular colour and shampoo colour are the main', says Suresh Vasvani, who runs shop at Mangalwara. Elaborating on the speciality of herbal colours, he says that these colours contain chemicals in very less quantity and are safe to use. Herbal colours look bright and cause no damage to skin. The plus point of these colours is that they come off easily.

Keshubhai Patel of Taraman Stores, New Market says, 'There are different types of colours in the market but one must know the trick to identify them. We should ensure playing of Holi with herbal colours as any ordinary colour may damage facial skin. We have herbal colour in different varieties'. Ashok Chhabaria seems to be in agreement regarding safe use of herbal colours. He says, 'Colours are available in market in different varieties which pose difficulty to us in choosing the colour of good quality'. Ashok is very much concerned in this matter and always buys herbal colour for his children. He says, 'Although, herbal colours are a little costly but that is acceptable to me, for the sake of my children'.

Ravi Kumar Pandey who is a student of MSc, and out for shopping on the eve of Holi, maintains that special care should be taken while using colours on Holi.

Herbal colours are available here

Taraman Stores at New Market

Jasmine Colours at Itwara

Vaswani Brothers at Mangalwara

Rakesh Stores at Itwara