Pongal / Sankraanthi , the time of the year for a New beginning, A New Harvest, A New perspective!

To me, it turned out to be a new start to my writing skills from where I had almost forgotten that I could write too! Hope you find this piece interesting.

Pongal to us has always been yet another occasion to relish Ven pongal , Ulutham vadai, Sakkarai pongal and Payasams.

But to a million other people living in villages and towns, its the sacred time of harvest – the ‘suggi kaala’ that it is called , truly a time of merriment (suggi), of hope of a new and better life with better revenues at least in this year’s harvests!

My maid who hails from the mandya belt shared a short story of how they celebrate the festival of sankraanti. This could be the best way to start my blogging again after quite a hiatus of not being able to blog so far!

On the eve of sankraanti, the families go to their respective paddy fields and agricultural lands. Each of their farms / lands have anthills for sure itseems! Now the Snake God is worshipped even before the Sun God! Come to think of it , their native wisdom is to be applauded big time. For Snakes mainly feed on rodents, bandicoots, rats, leeches and other insects which are feed on the plants and destroy the crop. So snakes help in keeping the rodent numbers at bay! There by helping the people to yield a good harvest. And hence, the Snake God is given its due respects. The family collects around an anthill where possibly there’s a sure existance of the wriggly wonder. Use blocks / bricks to build a small compound like a structure around the anthill symbolically protecting the anthill from getting destroyed, a way of saying thank you!. And then proceed to making the ‘oppotthu’ , a meal that they make and eat next to the anthil…symbolically saying you helped us get this food today so we thank you to the snake!  So very touching this was!

The main harvest is already under progress , what follows after sankraanti is just like the finishing touch where one good share of the harvest is dedicated to the family deity. The rest split among the joint families and what remains gets to the market!. Be it barley, rice , wheat, maize, ground nuts, coconuts, sugar cane.. and the likes…

My house help lady had a beautiful point to share here. Says she (translated for the readers in english) – ‘See akka, how beautiful is Gods creation and how god balances his creation between animals and us human beings. For when we separate the husk from the main crop , the crop is useful for us human beings and the husk is the main feed for cattle, sheep and other farm animals!.

Personally one rule I follow is to buy my vegetables and fruits from the push cart vegetable vendors who come in tens every day in front of our houses. I REFRAIN from buying veggies and basic fruits from super markets like spencers, food world or reliance ( I don’t have anything against these supermarkets though) I do depend on the supermarkets for a lot of other rare things which one can’t find in a local kiraana shop!

But it is my way of saying thank you and a way of helping the same people from villages that have come to cities to find a living thru selling veggies and fruits. So for festivals again the main vegetable market in our locality, being in koramangala to us it’s the Madiwala market to rescue!

(now why kiraana shop and why not supermarkets for grocery shopping is for another article!!) .

I know am a bit late in posting this as most of you would be amidst festival shopping , if you are yet to do it, do go to the local markets and buy your festival supplies!

HAPPY PONGAL AND HAPPY SANKRANTHI TO ALL MY READERS!