Firstly, I apologize for my long drawn out absence from Paws Awhile. But if for a minute you think that I was not up-to-date—you are wrong. I was closely following the posts on this blog. I want to congratulate the people behind Paws Awhile for the wonderful job that they have done so far. The first step has been taken. Here’s a toast to a million more.

Today I am going to talk about Holi – the festival of colors.

Holi is a wonderful time to be in India. It’s that day of the year when you can see people running around in a playful mood with colors smeared all over them. For once the shame and indecency of being seen as such in public is calmly put to rest. Sweets are distributed, liquor flows aplenty and the revelry is at its peak. As Holi comes closer, people stack up with different colors ready for the big splash on D-day. Initially the colors used were harmless and could be washed off the body in one go. However, as time passed, things changed. The colors now include toxic chemicals that are harmful to the skin and are not easy to wash off.

Here is an excerpt from http://www.wikipedia.org/**, about the colors of Holi:
Originally, the colors that were used to celebrate Holi came from the flowers of trees that blossomed during spring, such as the Indian Coral Tree and the Flame of the Forest, both of which have bright red flowers. These and several other blossoms provided the raw material from which the brilliant shades of Holi colors were made. Most of these trees also had medicinal properties and were beneficial to the skin. Over the years, with the disappearance of trees in urban areas, these natural colors came to be replaced by industrial dyes manufactured through chemical processes. Around 2001, two environmental groups called Toxics link and Vatavaran based in Delhi, did a study on the contents of these chemical colors and published its results in a fact sheet on Holi. This research revealed that Holi colors come in three forms; pastes, dry colors and water colors.

So what chemicals are used, and most importantly what are their harmful effects? Here is another excerpt from http://www.wikipedia.org/**:
The pastes contain very toxic chemicals that can have severe health effects as follows:
· Black contains lead oxide and can cause renal failure.
· Green contains copper sulphate and can cause eye allergy, puffiness and temporary blindness.
· Silver contains aluminium bromide which is carcinogenic.
· Blue contains prussian blue which can lead to contact dermatitis.
· Red contains mercury sulphate which is highly toxic and can cause skin cancer.

The dry colors, commonly known as gulals, have two components – a colorant that is toxic and a base which could be either asbestos or silica, both of which cause health problems. Heavy metals contained in the colorants can cause asthma, skin diseases and temporary blindness. Wet colors, mostly use gentian violet as a color concentrate which can cause skin discoloration and dermatitis.

The day after Holi, notice our dear old four-legged friends on the streets. Most of them, if not all, are covered in color. They do not know what hit them or why they been subject to such torture.

Torture, you might feel, is too harsh a word to use in this circumstance. I strongly disagree. Think of being covered in such harmful colors and what it could do to your skin. It’s not like we treat it as our personal responsibility to give them a bath after we’ve thrown color on them. It’s not like we treat it as our personal responsibility to call the vet if they get a skin infection. It’s not like we look after them anyways. So what gives us the right to throw these harmful chemicals on them?

I remember this song from one of my favorite bands—My Chemical Romance. These lyrics are taken from the song “The Black Parade”.

When I was a young boy,
My father took me into the city
To see a marching band.
He said, “Son when you grow up,
will you be the saviour of the broken,
the beaten and the damned”

I ask again, what gives us the right to torture them?

** Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

This is a guest post by Avik Noronha of Avik Speaks