This year Pongal (2014) was an unforgettable moment for me.I
had more fun this time when compared to previous ones, this was mainly because I
got long vacation holiday and time I spent with my family was more... I went to
my hometown three days before pongal and helped my parents in arrangements and
get necessary things... Last year I was not able to celebrate pongal due to my
wife was pregnant and we haven’t travelled to my hometown to celebrate it...We
always use to celebrate pongal in traditional way instead of preparing pongal in gas stow..Since we have
farm in village near by bhavani, I took few things from there in car as in Coimbatore
it will too costly during festival times.
On Saturday (11th Jan 2014), the day was dedicated
to shopping. I and my family listed out the things for shopping. I started the
Car ignition by noon and moved towards Gadhipuram for shopping. Parked the car
in Lakshmi complex and had lunch in Annapurna, I don’t why my mom always
prefers this hotel for eating but the food taste will be good when compared to
other hotels…After having lunch we moved inside shridevi for dress shopping ,
got few dresses for my son and for my sister daughter. During shopping, my son
started crying due to suffocation there, my wife got him outside and later we
found that my son is very keen in seeing moving objects outside rather than shopping.
Shopping almost went for 4 hours and we are back to home. Kept the dress in
pooja room, watched TV for a while and went to bed early.
Sunday (12th Jan 2014), the day was dedicated to
cleaning home for festival. Family members sorted out the work for each and
started working towards that. I was assigned to paint outside concrete floor
with cow dung... Since I don’t the mixing amount of water and cow dung in correct
proportion so I asked my father to prepare for me and I also learnt how to do
it... I started to paint, after a long time I am doing good amount of physical
work that actually made to sweat a lot. The work almost for three hours to
paint 300 sq feet of area, to energize me my wife gave coffee for every one hour.
My sister cleaning pooja room, wife and mom cooking for lunch, Dad washing
clothes and removing dust inside home and my son was in dreams. The whole day
went in cleaning home.
The Festival day came and it starts with sankranti (Kappu
Kattu), I plucked some bunch of
neem leaves and a flower which will be tied with the neem leaves together… I surfed
in the internet why do people celebrate sankranti ..“The first day of festival
is Bhogi (போகி). It is celebrated by throwing away and destroying old clothes and
materials, by setting them on fire, marking the end of the old and the
emergence of the new. Also in a villages there will be a simple ceremony of
"Kappu Kattu" (kappu means secure) will be done. The 'neem' leaves
are kept along the walls and roof of the houses. This is to eliminate the evil
forces.” After the “Kaapu Katu” is done,
I brought some red bricks from a nearby place and started arranging for pongal the
next day... Collected dry woods and coconut shell as the fuel for fire and all
set for the big day.
Pongal day came, Woke up early and wore new dress; as usual
dhoti for gents and cotton saree for ladies...Cleaned the mud pot, rice and few
more stuffs... Since I am elder son and my wife is mutha marumagal, she is
supposed to keep pongal this time... She was used to gas stow cooking in her
mom place and this was new to her so my mom helped her in each and every work,
she learnt from mom and done accordingly...She kept the mud pot in between the
bricks , poured some water , milk inside the pot and lighted the fire with her
lucky hand.. After lighting, we took each corner between each of us and fueled
the non-petroleum stow… The side where the milk flows outside at the end is the
winner, my sister daughter also participated in this competition and at the
last my sister family won the game and all together we said Pongalo pongal...
It was so much fun and we enjoyed the festival... Turmeric plant was tied with
pot and sugarcane was tied in triangle shape between the bricks and the sweet
pongal was prepared... And the time came to pray god sun, where new boiled rice
is offered to the Nature during sunrise, a gesture which symbolizes thanks to
the sun and nature for providing prosperity...We prayed god and ate pongal which
tasted awesome and ate sugar cane which I brought from my village farm…After a
long time, all the family members sat together for lunch and had heavy food by
cracking jokes and watching movies on the side.. And on the day of Maatu pongal
we used to go to a hill temple near my village, where people prepare food and
eat together by sharing. This time, we haven’t gone there to enjoy the day...
Instead I spent the time with my family. Five days of vacation went so soon and
back to Bangalore for work… Then I thought
“Why the hell , time move fast during vacation but not during
office working days”..
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