People dance as they play with colored powder during celebrations marking Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, in Guwahati, India, Monday, March 25, 2024. (Photo by Anupam Nath/AP Photo)

An owl curiously peeks out from a tree hollow. The pictures of the spotted owlet were taken by Anuj Jain in Chandigarh, India in the second decade of November 2025. (Photo by Anuj Jain/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Paramasivan points to the statue of sun god Surya at a temple outside the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 5, 2017. In the early morning darkness, Devendran P. walks up a hill to a solar observatory in India's southern hill town of Kodaikanal, trudging the same path his father and grandfather walked in a century-old family tradition of studying the sun. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

A woman wearing a scarf to cover her face looks on as she waits for a passenger bus on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, India, November 8, 2017. The Great Smog of Delhi is an ongoing severe air-pollution event in New Delhi and adjoining areas in the National Capital Territory of India, in November 2017. Air pollution at this time peaked on both PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels. It has been reported as one of the worst levels of air quality in Delhi since 1999. (Photo by Saumya Khandelwal/Reuters)

“Mehndi or menhdi is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration in India, as well as by expatriate communities from the country. The word mehndi is derived from the Sanskrit word mendhikā. The use of mehndi and turmeric is described in the earliest Vedic ritual books. Haldi (Staining oneself with turmeric paste) as well as mehndi are important Vedic customs as a symbolic representation of the Outer and the Inner Sun. Vedic customs are meant to awaken the “inner light” and so the gold of the inner Sun has an important symbolic function”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Application of henna or “Mehndi” to a girls hand in a market on October 18, 2010 in Jaipur, India. (Photo by Simon de Trey-White/Getty Images)

A woman wears a face mask on her chin and walks past a cake depicting the coronavirus on display at the annual cake show organized as part of new year celebrations in Bengaluru, India, Tuesday, December 29, 2020. India's confirmed coronavirus cases have crossed 10 million with new infections dipping to their lowest levels in three months, as the country prepares for a massive COVID-19 vaccination in the new year. (Photo by Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo)

A Tibetan living-in-exile in India attends a peace march during the 62nd Tibetan National Uprising Day in the suburb of McLeod Ganj, the seat of the Central Tibetan Administration in exile, near Dharamsala, India, 10 March 2021. Tibetan Uprising Day is held annually on 10 March and commemorates the Tibetan uprising against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet in 1959. (Photo by Sanjay Baid/EPA/EFE)

Traditional dancers from southern state Tamil Nadu prepare themselves as they wait to perform during a press preview of displays being featured for the upcoming Republic Day parade in New Delhi on January 22, 2019. The Republic Day is an annual showcase of India's military hardware and cultural diversity. India celebrates its 70th Republic Day on January 26. (Photo by Sajjad Hussain/AFP Photo)