With Holi around the corner, Kolkata is being attired in a plethora of bright colours.Be it in vibrant orange, turquoise or yellow of the gulaal or the flaming red of the Gulmohar and the pink of Bougainvillea growing in the quaint lanes of the city.

For quite some time, the people of the city have been worrying about the many skin diseases that follow after playing with the synthetic colours but this year, government of West Bengal has been distributing 100% organic colours through the Biswa Bangla stores.

This is an initiative of the Office of the Balarampur Development Block & Panchayat Samity and is made by the Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department, Purulia. colours are extracted from dried and roasted petals and are available in colours mauve, light green, blue and peach, made out of rose, neem, aparajita and marigold respectively.

Priced at Rs 85 for a pack of 100g and Rs 220 for a pack of 200g, these beautifully scented and herbal colours are only available in the Biswa Bangla stores. This year’s Holi will also see some very new products like the instant colour capsules and colour sprays.

“While age old favourites like water balloons still are flying out of the shelves, the demand for ‘pakka’ colours has substantially decreased. People of all age groups now prefer the mild ‘gulaal’ to the striking and metallic ‘pakka’ colours but nonetheless, the mischievous children of the city are still mixing ‘pakka’ colours in the gulaal to dupe the elders”, a seller at Bata More said.

Although the city has observed elaborate Holi parties with large participation for quite some time now, a number of people are still trying to preserve our tradition like starting the day with applying colour on the feet of the elderly or visiting Santiniketan, which turns into a picturesque colour palette during this time.

Shreya Chatterjee (20) said she would be spending her day “revelling and dousing colours” with her friends while Ranjaboti Ghosh will be taking a trip to Santiniketan with her parents and younger brother. “We always visit Santiniketan on Holi…it is like a ritual in our family.

It is beautiful there”, said the college student. Few also have their exams scheduled around the day of Holi but they say that does not deter them from playing with colours and being “weirdly coloured” for the next few days.