To my few telugu and kannada readers – Sankranthi Subhakankshalu.
To my tamil readers – Pongal Nazhvazthukkal
To the rest – Happy Kichhdi eating! 🙂
Sankranthi, or Sankranti (Sanskrit: मकर संक्रान्ति), is a festival that signifies the beginning of the harvest season for the farmers of Indian Sub-Continent.(wikipedia).
Growing up outside of Andhra, my parents tried what little they could to inculcate in me and my sister the true spirit of the meaning of this festival. Since TamilNadu also celebrated the festival similarly, it wasn’t too hard a task. At some point in time while growing up, the festival ceased to be a bore and a pain to wake up early, drench oneself in oil, and take those showers in the cold (yes, Jan was cold in Madras, then) get dressed in pattu langas(paavadais/skirts) and then well, do nothing. More like wait for the food to arrive. Considering this fell always on the same days (since it wasn’t religious, the festival followed the sun’s phases?) it was a luck of the draw if we had to wake up earlier to do the whole thing and then leave for school or not.
I spent a couple of my final high school years getting to know mom’s extended side of the family, and I was old enough was allowed to spend time alone with them right there in the middle of good old teluguland. A few more facets of it opened in front of me and visions of the Gangireddu (decorated ox) that are paraded around down the streets while the accompanying guy sings songs, so many colorful muggulu/kolam/rangoli, so many langa vonis (and not just me looking very awkward in them, initially), riding bikes with the skirts hitched (omigosh, thinking about the feats I did those days – what a tomboy I was!) and the movies, songs, and well, the food!
Back home, my mother was famous for her muggulu (rangoli). So famous, that she never let us share any parts of it in case we mess it up for her. Each festive day starting way back for when Deepavali starts, she’d have one assigned out for each day. No repeats. The more intricate, more dots, the more prowess. I used to just get tired watching her go round and round, and I was just relegated to watching, or perhaps just maybe sweeping the place up and dusting water for her to lay the work. Then she decided she’d give me a job. The gobbemmalu (flowers stuck into cow dung balls placed on these muggulu/rangoli/Kolam) appeared. At first it seemed ridiculous for me to even imagine it and I refused to do it for a year. With mom, the more I protested, the more insistent she’d get. After awhile she’d win anyway just coz, well, she was mom.
I was about 15-16 or so, when I volunteered to do it. Then, just to make a job carry a charm forward, I got creative with them. Made different sizes, used colorful flowers, waltzed through neighbors gardens just for that particular lavender and so on. No colored powders since mom did the curvy lines muggulu, and not the lined ones, but these little green balls placed strategically, added a dimension to them. The three days were indeed spectacular. As the sun rose and filled the roads, the muggulu would breathe a life and develop a character very unique, almost as a representative of the creator, not God, but the one who designed them.
We’d check other houses out, and there wasn’t a doubt down the 4 street community of ours that the muggu/kolam in front of Mrs. S’s house was the best. Mom would glow and chuckle and feel shy at everyone’s praises and I’d stand in silence and know that my little gobbemmalu created a 3rd dimension to the art form.
This morning, I drew the muggu you see above, outside my house in bitter cold with the wind rushing through the fleece. My hands shivered as I scrubbed and colored the sidewalk chalk into the concrete. Since there weren’t enough colors (we ran out of colored sand) to go around, I ran back in to get kumkum to create the red. The yellow was turmeric.
Out of the blue, I remembered the gobbemmalu, and I searched around. In the middle of this winter, I wasn’t going to find any flowers. This evening, as I stared at the design outside, it felt incomplete. I pulled the bag of battery operated tea lights I’d picked up over the holidays, and placed them within.
Came back in, and made dinner – pongal, annam paravanam, green plantain curry, radish pulusu and green mango pachadi.
Today is Bhogi, and I miss the foggy smoke filled air of my neighborhood in Madras. I miss the screams of little boys running chasing tires on fire, I miss the crispness in the air, I miss the sounds of cookers going off in the morning, I miss the vegetable vendor’s voice, I miss the old milk lady’s firm hand on my chin, I miss the crisp feel of silk against my skin, and I miss the simpler pasts of my life. I miss being the quiet, smiling, shy, soft-spoken occupied bookworm, one that people had to pause in front of to spot.
*sigh.
So what did you do? How is Pongal today for you? People who celebrated at Chennai Sangamam are more than welcome to rub it in. I’d rather hear, read and feel nostalgic, than see white space. Indulge me. 🙂
happy sankranthi rads! I really need to go to the motherland and see how its done – sounds like a blast 🙂
I was wondering why there was no post from you… Happy Shankaranthi…
Could be quite an effort to find cow dung balls in the US 😉
Maybe Wisconsin??
Oh I made Pongal for the first time! And yeah Bhogi (thankfully) isnt how it used to be earlier..not too much of the pollution!
You make it sound so beautiful 🙂 A very heart-warming read, this post. Back home it was just a fun thing for kids to go a knocking and collect Tilgul.
A very happy Sankranthi to you, your family & your readers 🙂
-g
PS: Tha muggu (rangoli?) is beautiful 🙂
i stopped reading the post at mango pachadi;
*the cravings are intense now*
* only 10 minutes apart*
breathe breathe breathe
* only 5 minutes apart*
*only a few seconds apart*
now, in front of you, a full-sized, grown woman looking for some sweet sour pachchadi just the way my grandma made it…
how now?
m in malay: lol! I know the feeling 🙂
Here’s a 911 for you. You get green apples out there? Pretend they are mangoes. They are tart enough. They turn out looking like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kowthas/3174571157/
Let me know if you are breathing ok? 🙂
gauri: well, some things in retrospect are always a pleasant experience. Thanks, I was bone cold when I got in! So you collecting tilgul? :p
GDS: Yes, am sure, that’s what I hear, but fortunately for me, the I left India in ’93 and I remember the place like how it was then. 🙂
Vijay: lol, am getting predicatble eh? 🙂
yeah, well, I think if I travel 30 miles south, I shoudl find enough farms willing to dispose of the waste 😛
bookworm: It’s so sad that we can’t take a trip when we feel like it right? Our schedules. hummppff.
How’s the birthday coming along? 😀
besh maami, neat post.
reminded me of the food. as boys obv sankranthi/pongal wasnt abt dressing up or the kolam/muggu but about kites!
Ah the kites and teh fites that broke out thereafter!
Happy Sankranti RADs.
Your muggu is awesome with the lights and the colours.
Reading this post took me 10 years back and relive the festive bhogi-sankranthi at home.
Pongal Nalvazthukkal Rads. Lovely kolam. Since it’s just over a week since we got back from India, am still homesick 🙁 This time it will just be my baby girl and me doing the girlie stuff except when it comes to eating and the boys will join in:)
Sands: ah, so many of you traveling and back. Am waiting for my turn. It’s been too long! hehe, thats what boys are good at. 😉
Jyothy: It’s during these times, that the nostalgia hits 🙂
Max: heh, Kites! I Totally forgot the kites, and the sugarcane too! Now I want sugarcane. 😐
Happy Pongal Rads!
Add I am proud of you gal – you so totally stuck it out. Waiting to see pics of the new you :-)!
Sankranthiya Subhashayagalu from a Kannada girl 🙂
I remember making ‘ellu’ with Pati and fighting to eat before the tiem it was supposed to be eaten, sakkare acchu – same problem, dressing up, going to people’s houses, giving it to them, taking it from them…I should write a post on this no? 😀
Nandini: lol, yes, you should, you’re bursting with memories too! 🙂 … had no idea you were Kannada, I kept talking tamil with you! 😀
Archana: Thank you, you were missed 🙂
Yeart, the pictures look just the same to me. No before after difference at all. 🙁
Sankranthi Shubhakankshalu! I miss all that you wrote about the festival Rads. It sucks to travel back the day before the festival :(( But it was a fun trip nevertheless.
In our street, our house and the one on the left had early risers, and the muggu would be up by 7. That was when the family on our right would wake up and start washing their front yard and the road, directing all that water onto our muggu’s!!! And it happened every year despite our sincere requests/threats!
No pulihara ? and green apple pachadi…yumm
Pongal nalvazhtukal Rads! naan akkaravadisal saaten. 😀 annam is rice, but whats paravanam?
Appy Pongal Rads! :–)
Happy Pongal/Sankranthi! 🙂
Praveen, SK: So, ate some pongal people? 🙂
WT: LOL. yes, paravannam = rice payasam, rice pudding sorts 🙂
Priya: Really! Yikes, such horrid neighbors we get stuck with occasionally. We had our share on the left side. Terrible humans overall.
Pulihara was yesterday. 3 day festival, got to divide the dishes up 🙂
Happy Sankaranthi…
wanted to write to you yesterday, thanks to my work, did not have time to breathe…
I remember those days when i used to make muggu and guess what mine turned out to be the best in the whole street in no time..those were the innocent days 🙁
on bhogi aditya ki bhogipallu (had no regipallu)…no pulihora no payasam…
i want to go back in time
muggu, gobbemmalu, girls in pattu pavadas and most of all the kites…aaha!! I miss all that! But I had pongal, thanks to atta!
Anyway, Sankranti Shubhakankshalu!
stitha: Kites eh? :)Did you jump walls and fall off terraces too? I’d just sit and watch who broke which limb every season 😀
Jaya: Suddenly work’s peaked eh? Here too.
Ah, bhogi I did only the first 2 years for all kids. This year’s been too busy. wanted to start bommala koluvu too, but no bommas. 😐 This year will load when I travel.
work has been like this for the last 4months i must say.. i am literally working 12hrs plus 2 hrs commute every single day….its a sad state of affairs
Hi!
Belated wishes
(Followed you from Lak’s)
Shall stop by later, cya
Shankari: Thanks for dropping by. cya 🙂
Jaya: ah, that is unfortunate, as my work’s been steadily increasing despite shorter hours. I wonder why we put through the grind at all.
..and then some folks go take month long vacations 😐