Re: Zarda ...
Clothesmad it takes a bit of a practice to know just how much you need to boil the rice..did take me some time too.. the thing with sweet rice is that once rice are added to sugar they don't soften as much as they would normally in a dum. For Zarda I boil them a little more than half-done.
For more colored rice..use the base of a cup/glass/anything round and make slight depressions on top layer of boiled rice before putting it on dum.. spread different food colors in each circle with a spoon... be sure to cover the whole circle..then put rice on dum....this way when you mix rice in the end you'll see that colors will be distributed more evenly. hope it helps :)