India, Feb. 27 -- On the morning of Holi, colour becomes a universal language. Water, thickened with powder, flows across terraces. Colony get-togethers dissolve into red and pink; Mummy and Papa look unrecognisable. By late afternoon, the work of body-scrubbing begins. Skin holds magenta in its pores. Nails are rimmed blue. In short, synthetic colour outlasts the fun. It is worth asking why the city's Holi revellers do not make use of what the city already has by that time: the red semal. Although Holi is still a week away, the red semal flower has arrived. They are already falling by the roadsides. On Lodhi Road, outside a super-fancy hotel, the pavement is thick with semal. The flowers lie splayed open, five fleshy petals cupping a bunch...