Festival Songs

Work has been rather hectic these past months, but it was with chagrin that I realised that I had completely missed celebrating both Ashtami Rohini (Janmashtami) and Ganesh Chaturthi  this year. That got me feeling very nostalgic about my childhood when my friends and I celebrated everything that we could celebrate, whether those festivals were ours to celebrate or not. I grew up in Bangalore. Well, in Madras as well, but we had moved to Bangalore when I was 7, and so, for the longest of time, Bangalore was 'home'. (Until I moved to Bombay after my marriage, and that became 'home' forever more.)

I always associate Indian festivals with their legends and myths and the food rather than their rituals. So if I ate Sakkarai pongal and vadai with gusto for the festival of Pongal (Harvest Festival, Thai maadham - Mid-January to Mid-February) as a small child in Madras, Bangalore introduced me to Yugadi (Kannada New Year, Chaitra - Mid-March to Mid-April), and Obbattu. It was also Bangalore that introduced me to Lohri (Harvest/Winter Solstice, Paush - Mid-January to Mid-February), Teej (and kheer in the month of Sawan - Mid-July to Mid-August) apart from Diwali (and Kala Jamun), courtesy my Punjabi friends, Asha and Ashwin. 

I became acquainted with the softest, squeakiest Rosogollas and the creamiest Sondesh in Bangalore as well, thanks to Nikhil, whose Bengali roots meant we celebrated Durga Puja (in the month of Ashvin (Mid-September to Mid-October) with great fervour. Basically, I don't think there was a single festival that we left 'un'-celebrated! Christmas and Easter meant Lucy (well, her 'real' name was Chloe, so I don't know why we called her Lucy, but we did) and hot cross buns with oodles of currants, and the sort of dark, fruity, melt-in-the-mouth Christmas cake that (I insist) only the Indian Christians can bake. Eid meant crowding into Nusrat's house for seiviyaan and sheermal. (I didn't eat meat even then, so the wonderful kebabs were wasted on me, but our other friends pigged out.) For Onam and Vishu (the Malayali New Year), of course, I badgered my mother into making semiya payasam or paal payasam for us.

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