Herbal Holi celebrated by Swapnapati Foundation in Mumbai  

New Delhi : Holi is a festival that has been celebrated in India for a very long time, even before the illustrious times of Lord Krishna. The traditional Holi festival in India has seen significant changes over the years. In modern times, Holi has been played with synthetic, chemical-laden dyes that are hazardous to everyone’s health. Yet Herbal Holi, developed and coordinated by the Swapnapati Foundation, is the season’s new flavour, as people once again recognise the significance of playing Holi with colours made of natural herbs.

Herbal Holi is a relatively new tradition, however it has been observed in Bhubaneswar for the past 13 years. The foundation helps guide the blind kids, and their performance kicks off the party. The foundation annually celebrates Herbal holi with blind youngsters, allowing them to experience the delight of colour for the first time. When the Swapnapati Foundation brought its innovative and fully skin- and eye-safe Holi Celebration to Mumbai for the first time, the city’s residents gave the event an enthusiastic response they’ll never forget. The celebs who took part in the Mumbai Herbal Holi Event includes DJ Shadow, Nikita Rawal , Navneet Malik, Aleeza Khan, Sumeet Pusavale, Natasha Natty, Roshni Kapoor, Raayo Bakhirta, Deepika Charak, Rishikka Bali, Aditi Shetty, Parul Chowdhary, Maera Mishra, Tanishq Rajan, Urwas Jaishwal, Krishna Kaul, Kashish Thakur, Manoj & Manju Bharti, and many other from showbiz. Everyone had a great time because it was so different and showed such care for the environment.

Herbal Holi was created by and is organised by Swapna Pati, who is overjoyed by the enthusiastic reception she received from the people of Bombay at the first event she held. She spoke of her delight at the event’s success, highlighting the fact that more and more people are becoming interested in Herbal Holi and seeing its value at a time when many are experiencing the pain they have brought upon themselves by playing with chemicals-laden dyes.

After organizing Herbal Holi for the first time ever in Mumbai, Swapna Pati expressed her happiness over the success of the event and said, “We are trying to imbibe a culture through which people learn to play Holi which is safe and secured and which doesn’t affect their health in a negative way. This way we are also trying to cultivate a culture where people adopt to play Holi in traditional and organic ways reminiscing our own rich Indian heritage and culture. The aim of organizing such an event is also to protect and save our environment. We want that more and more people should celebrate Herbal Holi so that the damage already done to our environment and impact of the climate change can be reversed in a phased manner and further damage needs to be controlled. We are also working to bring back the glory of Indian culture through organizing Herbal Holi events. We are making people aware of the harmful effects of chemicals so that sooner or later they realise that protecting their skin and health should be of prime importance. The way people had given thunderous response to our event in Mumbai is what makes us happy and more strength to further organize more such events in Mumbai and across the country.”

Through celebrations of Herbal Holi in various cities across the country, Swapnapati Foundation is not only making people aware about the harmful effects of various kind of  chemicals, but it is also  empowering women by providing them with various kind of livelihood  and helping in educating underprivileged kids so that they don’t suffer due to lack of basic necessities in their life. Swapna Pati has always been sensitive towards the wellbeing of the children and she has always been on the forefront to help educate underprivileged children and empower women who belong to economically weaker section of the society.

Swapnapati first adopted a shelter home called ‘Ashraya’ and later she herself started her own Swapnapati Foundation to help children and women in more effective ways. Initially, during celebrations of Herbal Holi, her foundation used to help people with blankets and other essential items but now the foundation has come a long way in contributing in various ways for the betterment and well-being of the society. Happy breakfast is the most popular activities of the foundation, where many children are feed the breakfast by the foundation.

Interestingly, Raurkela (Bhubaneshwar) born Swapnapati herself is a Bollywood actor who has worked in many feature films, short films, web series etc and has made a name for herself through her sheer dedication and hard work. But working and helping underprivileged children and women had been her passion. That is when Swapnapati thought of starting a foundation in her name so that she can empower women and educate children in a much better way.

Herbal Holi was celebrated in Mumbai in association with SRGK Entertainment which was established by Mr. Rajesh Kumar Mohanty. Midday group of publications was the media partner of this celebration which got massive response from Mumbaikars.

Talking about this unique initiative, Rajesh Mohanty said, “Herbal Holi is also being organised to stop the usage of chemical laden colours during the festival. It is not only harmful for human bodies but child labourers are also employed in large numbers which not only robs them of their childhood but also of their future. The more organic and natural colours are used during the festival of holi, less and less harmful chemicals will be in circulation and thus people will be saved from getting affected by it. Celebrations like Herbal Holi is useful in spreading the message of harmful effects of chemicals on human bodies.”