Two sips and you're out

DIET

Post-Holi, a glass of thandai to cool you down.

The moon and madness have been closely linked throughout human history. And at the Holi purnima (full moon), we Indians yield to one of our maddest festivals.

Since we work so hard at celebrating Holi, whether by throwing colours around or preparing for the occasion "" such as making (or, these days, purchasing) snacks and sweets like gujia "" we need something to calm and rejuvenate us after our exertions.

That something is thandai. Every north Indian knows what this is: a cool and sweet drink that contains crushed almonds, khas-khas, elaichi, black (or white) pepper, rose petals, saunf, the famous char magaz (watermelon, muskmelon, lotus-stem seeds and often almonds), all ground up in a base of either water or milk or some combination thereof.

Thandai, as the name suggests, is famous for its "cooling" effect, meaning that it reduces body heat, according to the ayurvedic theory of the body that most Indians intuitively accept. So it is an excellent summer drink.

Almonds, however, are known for their heating effect. "If you soak almonds overnight and then peel and crush them," says Kushal Lata Kumar, a grandmother and repository of such knowledge, "then the heating effect ends."

There are as many versions of thandai as there are makers. Not only do ingredients vary, so does the level of complexity, proportions and concentrations. The possibilities are near-endless.

Then there is the traditional ingredient of bhang, which is the flowers and leaves of the female Cannabis sativa plant, a relative of marijuana. This is responsible for a good deal of Holi madness. In Silsila, Amitabh Bachchan drank bhang thandai and flirted with Rekha in front of his wife Jaya.

If thandai cools and refreshes, boosts appetite and relieves acidity and constipation, bhang claims an even more impressive list of benefits, from curing lisping to ending dysentery, clearing phlegm and sharpening the mind (yogis use it before meditation and to curb hunger while fasting).

Commercial thandai concentrates (without bhang) are common, but nothing beats the homemade drink, which comes with family history. Kumar recalls: "Lucknow's thandai had a great name. People used to go to Chowk specially to drink thandai "" glassfuls of it. It was a lot of fun."

The UK's Guardian recently reported that an Indian restaurant next to Parliament in London, much frequented by MPs and their ilk, was experimenting with a Holi menu which included a thandai sorbet. What a deliciously crazy innovation.