Q 1. The joint session of the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on the anti-terror law POTO is the third. The first was...
a. In 1975, to affirm Emergency
b. In 1953, to pass a law integrating Jammu and Kashmir with India
c. In 1961, to vote on Dowry Prohibition Bill

Q 2. The Postal Department plans to start...
a. e-mail at post offices
b. Holographic stamps
c. Credit card services

Q 3. Pramod Kumar Saxena and Makhan Singh are...
a. Indian diplomats expelled from Pakistan
b. Suspects arrested in the Natasha Singh case
c. Co-promoters with Yuvraj Singh of a cricket theme park outside Chandigarh

Answers: 1(c), 2(c), 3(a)

FESTIVAL FUN
Flower Power for Holi Colours

EDIBLE HUES: Soaked Tesu flowers (below); Trikha

Holi, the carnival of colours, has now taken an organic, urban walk. You can celebrate an environmentally safe and good-for-the-skin Holi with natural colours, made from arrowroot and perfumed with essential oils like jasmine, rose and sandalwood.

"Post-Holi, people would come to us with damaged skin, asking for skin-care treatment. So now we make edible colours. What you can eat, your skin can also eat," says Supriya Trikha, who, supported by the Delhi Government's Environment Ministry, makes these colours at Aaveda, a natural beauty care centre in Delhi.

For wet colour, Trikha sells tesu flowers, village India's ancient answer to an organic Holi. In the temples of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, tesu flowers are soaked in water for 15 days, then boiled and sieved for kesri (orange) wet colour. "This colour doesn't harm the eyes or skin. You can even drink it," claim locals. Organic urban gulal to eat and the countryside's kesri colour to drink. Quite a Holi party.

-Shefalee Vasudev

MUSIC REVIEW
Original Indi-rock Talent Smoked Out

SMOKIN' GUNS

Smokin' music from some of India's finest guitar players," reads the jacket of the album Smokin' Guns. Released by RSJ (Rock Street Journal) Records, the compilation is an effort to promote original Indi-rock music.

The track I know what I did last summer is a complex piece with interesting shifts in tempo by the self-taught Christy Samuel. The melodious Fire Dance is Mahesh Tinaker's take on fusing Indian and western sounds. Unlike some attempts at jugalbandi, this speaks to you. With percussion adding texture to rhythm, the nimble-fingered Derek Julien's Baraat holds its own. Rudy Wallang's simple and exuberant Not those funkin' blues again has the man from Shillong in a limited range-and it works. Distance is Dhruva Ghanekar's song on "the distance between destinations" but this must be a private odyssey-it's hard to travel with. Some tracks on Smokin' Guns lack a distinct feel, but there's talent in the rest.

-Anita Sharma

SOTTO VOCE

Meghalaya Chief Minister F.A. Khonglam dropped seven of 10 Congress ministers and roped in nine MLAs of the main opposition UDP after the Congress refused to back his Rajya Sabha candidate ... West Bengal DGP Dinesh Vajpayee had to vacate his position. The Calcutta High Court said he had been wrongly appointed ... The Tamil Maanila Congress is discussing a merger with the Congress ... About 60 rare yellow-footed green pigeons have committed suicide by flying into a particular wall in Sukna in West Bengal in the past month ... The ISI will not dismantle its Kashmir and Afghanistan cells, says its former chief, Pakistan minister General Javed Qazi.