Indian Festival Specials - Thandai (Spiced Chilled Milk) for Holi

It's Holi. Holi-day. Yay!

A celebration of springtime, this year it feels very apt, as after a cold, harsh February, the weather seems to have finally turned a corner here. The sun is warm on my face, the skies are a brilliant blue, the birds are singing and starting to fill the nesting boxes, it stays light later and later in the day and my life just feels brighter and happier. Kay planted his seeds for the garden last weekend, and I started getting excited about all the fresh harvests and bounty coming my way soon.

Holi is characterised by colour. People throw coloured powders up in the air, douse each other with coloured water and celebrate the arrival of flowers and fruit. Holi is also the festival of love and this bittersweet emotion is embodied in Hindu mythology. Legend has it that Lord Shiva, in his anger at being shot by Kaamadeva's arrow (the Indian God of love, similar to Cupid) reduced him to ashes. The arrow worked, however, and Shiva married Parvati. Rati, the wife of Kaamadeva, begged Shiva to revive her husband, and Shiva, understanding true love, granted her wish (and everyone lives happily ever after...)

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