Chicago, Illinois – Holi is one of the most widely celebrated Indian festivals, yet not much is known about it around the world. Building on the success of Tamarind Tot’s previous apps, Discover Indian Monuments and Diwali with Tamarind Tots, they are proud to launch Holi with Tamarind Tots universal app focused on this indian spring festival of colors. This is the first such app to teach kids about Holi, and allows them to experience the colorful celebrations of holi via interactive gameplay on their touchscreen devices.

“In keeping with our vision of bringing india to children around the world,” said Tamarind Tots founders Aarti Khanna and Shameeli Sinha, “this app is a modern take on this important indian festival that takes full advantage of the interactivity and colorful graphics of touchscreen devices.”

Start off by reading or listening to the holi eBook. Real life photos and beautiful illustrations go with a description of the celebrations, traditions, and mythological stories associated with holi. Explore the many questions about Holi:

* Why do we throw colored powder at each other on holi?
* What is the significance of lighting a bonfire on chhoti holi?
* What is lathamar holi and does it really involve women beating men with sticks?
( And many more!

Next, move on to celebrating holi on your devices. Begin the holi celebrations by picking your personalized avatar. Then, dance to bhangra beats as you light a bonfire on chhoti holi. Learn the hindi and English names of all the items as you thrown them into the Holika Dahan bonfire. After chhoti holi, move onto a colorful holi game. Get into the holi action by playing colors virtually with the Tots- Niki, Tara, and Krish. This game has lots of engaging elements inspired by real life holi celebrations.

You can control your avatar with a virtual joystick as you launch ammo at the tots, and dodge ammo launched by them. Don’t forget to change your ammo any time you want- you can pick from balloons (gubbaren), colored powder (gulaal), and water pistons (pichkari). Avoid the monkey at all costs, because if you hit him, he will splatter you with bananas. But, remember to hit the egg marching to the beat of the drums, and earn special egg ammos and a shield. You will collect points and gold coins as you play!

After celebrating holi, you can explore indian (holi) food with sweet & spicy interactive mazes- the first is designed for sweet and the second for savory indian food. Swipe your finger on the screen to navigate the tots through the mazes as they try to find their way to the food item. Food blurbs and beautiful graphics will help you learn more about holi food.

Just like Discover Indian Monuments and Diwali with Tamarind Tots, this app is designed to take advantage of the capabilities of touch screen devices. Colorful graphics, interactivity, and engaging gameplay ensure lots of learning as you play.

Tamarind Tots has been featured on NDTV, Child magazine, Weekly Voice, masalamommas, theasianparent, funeducationalapps, and others. Their previous app, Discover Indian Monuments with Tamarind Tots, was featured in new and noteworthy by iTunes 6 times in over 30 countries. Holi with Tamarind Tots is ranked #16 in education on iTunes India soon after it’s release. A few excerpts about Tamarind Tots apps:

“Acceptance of different cultures can be gained through simple things like taking the time to educate children – these apps present an easy way of doing so”

“This app makes teaching the traditions of indian festivals a whole lot of fun, and even teaches you the hindi words associated with the event”

“It is a wonderful app for a first exposure to the country’s rich heritage of monuments, especially for children based abroad”

Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
* Requires iOS 5.1 or later
* Universal Application
* 43.2 MB

Pricing and Availability:
Holi With Tamarind Tots 1.3 is only $0.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the App Store in the Education category. There is also an Android version available on Google Play.

Tamarind Tots
Holi With Tamarind Tots 1.3
Purchase and Download (iOS)
Purchase and Download (Google Play)
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Tamarind Tots creates engaging and interactive apps that expose kids to the sights, sounds, and colors of india through game play. The company was founded in 2011 by two moms, Aarti Khanna and Shameeli Sinha, alumni of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and ex-management consultants, who hope to bring India to children around the world through high quality Apps with a modern flair. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2011-2014 Tamarind Tots Limited. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.