It’s time to unwrap the new clothes, design the rangoli, and prepare sweets. It’s the New Year. The first day of the Marathi calendar, Gudi Padwa is widely celebrated by Maharastrians as the beginning of summer.
“Every Maharashtrian home erects a Gudi — a bamboo stick decorated with a silk dhoti, neem or mango leaves, covered with a silver or copper pot. It is symbolic of the triumph of Ram over Ravan and his return to Ayodhya,” says Bharat Hate, 62, who retired as a manager at Cadbury. Hate’s New Year isn’t complete without two delicacies: kesari bhaath made of rice, saffron and varied dry fruits, and shrikhand-puri.
Gudi Padwa, like other festivals, is marked by a mouth-watering variety of sweets. Shrikhand is a staple at most Maharashtrian homes. Prachi Deshpande, 47, is a shrikhand expert, having prepared it over the years for her joint family of five. “You tie up the curd, drain the water and add saffron, elaichi (cardamom), sugar, and dry fruits or other flavours. It is had with puris, and is sometimes offered as prasad,” she says.
The reason for eating shrikhand is its cooling effect, and as Gudi Padwa is believed to mark the onset of summer. Lunch is strictly vegetarian and consists of varan-bhaath, aloo wadi or bhajias and a vatana sabzi.
In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the festival is called Ugadi or
Yugadi. “We eat a lot of sweets like payasam (made with seviyan or rice), banan halwa, rawa and besan laddoos and sometimes chaklis, all which have to be prepared at home,” says Viveck Shettyy, 31, director of Indus Communications. Shettyy’s New Year involves a family trip to a temple, and digging into rice, sambar, and an assortment of pappads, all procured from his native place in Mangalore.
Comments
