REVELRY: Students of Maharani's College celebrating Holi in Bangalore on Saturday. — K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: Today, when you run riot spraying pink, yellow, red, blue and green, just check you also don't spray lead oxide, copper sulphate, aluminium bromide, mercury sulphide and so on.

These chemicals can cause renal failure, temporary blindness and eye allergy.

Dry colours

Not that it bothers some people. Listen what Souvik Chakraborty, a photographer, has to say: "It's just once in a year that we play with these colours, so it doesn't matter to us if they have chemicals in them. Playing with water colours is more fun than the dry colours."

But there are also those such as Monish Debnath, a copywriter, who prefers dry colours to those that are mixed with water, which are more harmful to the skin. When told that there are herbal colours available in the market, he is ready to pick them up.

Radha, who lives in an apartment complex that sees Holi revelry, is clueless about the toxicity of the colours used as it is residents' association that organises the bash.

There is a minuscule percentage of revellers who realise that Holi is meant to be celebrated in its original spirit: with vegetable colours and good clean fun.

These colours can be prepared at home or bought in niche stores.

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