Sankranthi,The Transition

~ Sruthi Aditya V ~ Leave a comment

​Hello Readers,
How are you all? Well,its already February .The temperatures in India are rising slowly.The first month of 2017 is already over and time is moving very fast. Personally, I like January a lot. January month’s memories are still afresh. Let me try to share a few of them.

In India especially in South India,Sankranthi(pongal) is an important festival for everyone. And its a tradition that the girl’s parents should invite their son in law along with his family to his in-laws home during the festival Sankranthi(pongal). Generally this festival is celebrated for 3 days Bhogi,Sankranti, Kanuma which ideally falls between January 13th to 16th. So,as I said am newly married,its very important for us to visit my parents house for this festival.

We headed first to my inlaws place and later, we drove to my parent’s home. Just a few days before this festival, comes my birthday. This year I got an opportunity to celebrate my birthday at my inlaws place first and then the very evening, we drove to my parent’s home. Ta da there is another birthday party again there as well. It is a memorable day. My mother and neighbours surprised us with a beautiful Welcome Rangoli.

My mother is a Classical music teacher. So her students, dressed in traditional attire, gathered around the time we arrived and placed gobbillu(cow dung cakes) decorated with turmeric, kumkum and flowers on the rangoli and did pooja.Its an Indian tradition that we treat those gobbillu as Goddess lakshmi.Then they offered naivedyam like milk,jaggery, sugarcane pieces, atukulu(flattened rice), senagalu(Bengal gram) etc.. They have sung couple of folklore traditional songs dancing around those gobbillu. It was great time and reminded me of my childhood days.

According to Indian tradition,these gobbillu have to be put daily and has to be made into cakes and are pasted on wall till they dry out. After that they will be put in fire.There was also a scientific reason for all the rituals as the cow dung balls mixed with turmeric create a worm free environment in the house.We all had dinner together with the family and then my dad said that there would be bhogi mantalu(bonfire) later that morning.

Basically bhogi mantalu will be done on Bhogi the day prior to Makara Sankranthi.So early morning at around 4:30 the bonfire was lit and we all assembled and put cow dung cakes in those bhogi mantalu. We can also put old furniture/stuff in bhogi mantalu. I believe that not only we should throw away old furniture/stuff, we should put all our sorrows,worries,tensions and everything. That means it marks the fresh beginning for the year.

The next day is Makara Sankranthi,the important festival for everyone.It is said that the sun enters makara rasi (capricorn) on that day and transitioning towards North marking the beginning of uttarayan. Sankranthi means Sankramana,the change literally means crossing. As sun transits from one direction to another it signifies that we too had to change our direction towards truth,dharma and good. The sun signifies knowledge, spiritual light and wisdom.Makara Sankranthi signifies that we should turn away from the darkness in which we live and begin to welcome the light within us shine better and brighter.It is all about forgetting the bitter moments which happened in the past and welcoming the new phase of life which is full of Purity,Knowledge and Wisdom.So this can be called as the festival of transition towards dharma,good.

On this auspicious day,we generally wear new clothes and visit temples. After our darshan at the temple our entire family had traditional lunch.The third day is celebrated as Kanuma.This is the festival of farmers.On this day they worship their cattle. And yes, We visited our farm and fed cattle too.These are the veggies from our farm. Grown organically without pesticides🤗

One more important aspect about this festival is Haridasu and Gangireddu (bull).They play a very important role.As sankranthi is celebrated as a harvest festival,cattle are also worshipped especially the bull.Haridasu sings traditional folk songs praising the god,lord vishnu and roam around the streets.Generally, people offer rice to him and it is said that offering something to him brings luck and prosperity.

After the festival was over we came back to our place. It was fun and we enjoyed a lot.So as the sun transits it’s journey towards north, I hope you also change your journey towards dharma.

These are the silk thread bangles which I made for my Mother in law. She liked them very much.These can be made easily at home just with silk thread,glue,some stones and bangles.

So that’s why I like January very much. Let me know about your memories and how you enjoyed this festival. I will be back with some interesting topic soon.

Happy Transition,                                          Sruthi Aditya V

My first blog post Ginger Matar Pulav

~ Sruthi Aditya V ~ 15 Comments

Hello Readers,Welcome to my blog.Hope you all are doing good. This is my very first blog post.Basically am a home maker got married a few months back.l am very much interested in writing and i can say that I feel very satisfied when I write something.So through this blog i want to share some of my write ups,new vegetarian recipes, about Indian traditions, culture, travel,books,online shopping and what not everything.

Today I tried a new recipe Ginger Matar Pulav and it came out very well.When i gave some of it to my maid she tasted and said like “aap ithana achhe kaise banate hei” (how can you make it so tasty)?So sharing that quick recipe with you all.This is very easy to make and takes hardly 20 minutes.

Ingredients

  1. Fresh or frozen peas/Matar 1 cup,                 (I prefer fresh peas)        
  2.    Rice 1 cup,                                                Water 2 cups  when cooked in pressure cooker and 2 1/2 cups  in cooking pot ,       
  3.  1 big Onion sliced,        
  4.  Fresh ginger 1 inch sliced,     
  5.  Green chillies 3 slit or chopped,    
  6.   cashew nuts 6 to 7,        
  7.    oil 1 spoon,      
  8.    ghee 1 spoon,              
  9.   Salt to taste.  

Spices

  1.  cumin a spoonful,       
  2.   cinnamon 2 sticks,           
  3.    cardamom 3 to 4,             
  4.    cloves 3 to 4,         
  5.    bay leaves 2                                              

Preparation Method

This can be made in an open Cooking pot or directly in a pressure cooker.

  • Put a cooking pot/pan/pressure cooker on stove and add ghee+oil.      After a minute add the spices and allow them to fry until they release their super aroma.               
  •  Then add onions and once they turn golden brown add green chillies and ginger.let them cook for 2 minutes and add cashew nuts.
  • Now add peas/Matar,salt,water and allow it to boil till rice becomes soft.If cooking in a pressure cooker cook it till you get 2 whistles.     
  •   Then transfer it into a serving bowl and garnish it with mint or coriander leaves.               Voilaaaaaaaa Ginger Matar Pulav is ready.Serve it hot with any raita of your choice.I prefer onion raita😃    img_20170130_125341201

Personally I like eating healthy food so I made it with brown rice.Hope you all like my recipes and try them.Let me know how you get it by commenting in the comment section.Also let me know about  your favourite raitas.Will be back with new recipe soon.

Happy cooking,                                                Sruthi Aditya V