Gudhi Padhva

Every year, New Years is celebrated in the "new" western world on the 1st of january. But there are quite a "few old" civilizations around the world that follow their own "traditional" calendar and celebrate New Years accordingly.
India is one such country, where people from different communities celebrate the New Years on the 1st of January. But in accordance with the hindu calendar, they celebrate their own New Years day. for eg: punjabis have the Baisakhi, the keralites have Vishu and the Maharashtrians have Gudhi Padhva.
The marathi calendar has 12 months. The first one being Chaitra. The first day of this month is traditionally the New Year.
In old days, when people didnot have Kalanirnay, way before the printing press, even before the marathi calendar was determined, they relied on the sun, the moon and the changing seasons to determine the days in that particular region. with regular observation of the skies came the knowledge that seasons follow one after the other, the sun rises and sets in opposite directions, the tides, the lunar cylce of waxing and waning moon, the eclipses etc. affirmation of the cycle lead to the making of the first calendar.
Gudhi Padhva is celebrated to welcome the spring, after long and dreary winter.it is also the time to determine when the farmers can start farming. maharashtrians celebrate Gudhi Padhva with great joy. People clean their houses (spring cleaning anyone???)., draw rangolis in front of the entrance door, adorn the doorway with a garland of raw rice, mango leaves and marigold. these three signify the onset of spring and nature's bounty.
Gudi Padhva is one of the auspicious 3 1/2 muhurat which is favorable for ceremonies ranging from satyanarayan puja to weddings, naming ceremonies( barse) etc. Some consider it auspicious to buy gold on this day. traditional sweets are prepared and enjoyed by everyone.
I remember, back in India my dad used to hang marigold garlands outside the door. We had to clean the house, my mom used to make shrikhand for lunch . So the special lunch would consist of puri batata-or cauliflower bhaji, varan bhaat, salad, and mango shrikhand.
We never had Gudhi tied outside our house, but many other friends used to have it. The gudhi consists of an upturned silver or copper pot on a bamboo stick, a string of garland around it and some sweets tied around it. a brightly colored cloth is tied around it. this gudhi is tied to symbolize Lord Brahma's flag. it is also used to symbolize the victory. (i dont recall the name of the king).
Here in Chicago, i just made some vermicelli kheer...wore new dress pants to office:) bought a new lipstick (that substitues for gold:) and wished everyone a very happy new year. My husband talked about how much he missed chitaleche mango shrikhanda:) i promised him i would try to make some at home. My mom-inlaw makes the best shrikhand. I get really greedy when i eat it:)
So, sarvanna gudhi padhvachya hardik shubhecha
P.S.: i saw this year that the Gudhi Padhva and the American "first day" of spring were just a day apart on the english calendar. Gudhi Padhva was on the 19th march, first day of spring in USA: 20th March...

The Legend of Holi

Last weekend was Holi and Rangapanchami. In India, this festival is celebrated all over with great happines.it is said that "holi" is so called after "Holika" the demoness sister of the demon king Hiranyakashap. he had a son called Prahlad who was a vishnu devotee. This devotion of Prahlad to Lord Vishnu used to anger Hiranyakashap a lot. Once,he made his sister Holika sit with prahlad on her lap and lit a fire around her. Holika was previously given a boon by Lord Brahma that no fire could cause her any harm if she wore a shawl presented to her by him. But just as she was holding prahlad on her lap, Vishnu created a gust of wind which blew away the shawl and thus consumed her but spared Prahlad.thus began the legend, lore, myth, story, tradition of Holi. and of course of Puran Polis.
Rangapanchami is more of colorful celebration. this is when Lord Krishna and his friends played with colors with the gopikas. i think it is to welcome the arrival of spring by colors after a long cold dreary winter. today gulal etc is used for that. water filled balloons and pichkaris are traditionally used to play.
here is chicago, Holi/rangapanchami is celebrated in the temple.
But back in India it is more fun. Fun to hang with your friends on Rangapanchami and douse everyone with color and water. :)
i miss it:)

Holi,...causing pollution???

Holi is celebrated as the triump of good over evil. It is more of symbolical tradition where the old , dead branches leaves, grass are supposed to be burnt. this is just to show the destruction or the consumption of evil by a force so strong which in this case is fire .But people, just for the sake of tradition, cut down young, healthy trees, branches and burn them.
they fail to see that this causes pollution (as if there was a dearth of it.) when I was in India, this used to worry me because i never used to see the reason for cutting down healthy trees for tradition. Are people so blind to the effect they are causing on the population? dont they realize that their kids finally follow their traditions, just as you are doing right now? It is you who must teach kids about right and wrong. it is great to follow some tradition, but how about followong some science too??? Personally, i think in old days, the people found a great way to clear of the old diseased trees and making way for the new ones, by burning. One day a smart enterprising farmer decided to get his lazy workers to work by telling them about the story of Holika and how they must continue the tradition by burning trees/leaves/branches. His god-fearing workers got to work and hence a tradition was born. But i worry about the less oxygen present in the atmosphere. People, the trees maintain the oxygen-carbondioxide ratio!!!!! My mom says when she was young it used to be cold in mumbai and dombivili during the months of october, november i.e. during Diwali. I myself remember wearing sweater when going to school in the month of december. But the increase in population has caused Man to cut down more trees for Land to build houses, factories etc. the decrease in trees is causing changes in the seasonal weather and contributing to global warming. I am sure apart, from the Diwali, Holi causes a good amount of pollution in India.
Don't get me wrong, i have nothing against tradition. Celebrate Holi. afterall India is the only country where you celebrate so many festivals. But for Holi, please leave the young healthy trees alone. Get some branches which are old and dead. collect dead leaves that the trees shed. collect cowdung if you must burn something. And remember to teach this to your kids. because one day, it will be their turn to celebrate Holi, and there just not might be any trees left around.
Dipti

its been a long time since i have written anything. been busy and lazy :) chicago is getting colder. i have yet to complete my studies. i am doing good with my internship hours for certification (there will be a blog abt this) and i have started reading "romantic" books again.
i havent tried any new recipe in along time though. but the other day, satya made meatballs and spaghetti and it was absolutely delicious. the recipe is a closely guarded secret.:)
will write more later, kind of busy right now.
dipti

snowed in....

i just cant believe this. 1 blog earlier i had complained about the winter in chicago, and decided to take it in stride since we plan to live here. but today, it is just too much. we had an overnight snowfall of 4-7 " and it is still snowing outside as i write. living in the suburbs can have its pros and cons. right now one of the thing i donot appreciate is being snowed in. me and satya woke up early, and got ready to go to the office. we take a bus frm our place to the railway station. well, we were waiting for the bus to show up, but it did not. the roads were not ploughed in yet completely by the street and sanitation dept. for us to drive down to the station. And if the buses are not working , chances are that the trains are not working either. The wind was working things up and blowing snow everywhere. In short, it felt like someone shook a snow globe, and had snow blowing everywhere. So me and satya trekked back home. I called up my office and let them know abt the situtation. and rightnow i am enjoying my unplanned holiday. We had a great lunch by the way. shrimp pasta and garlic bread. Everything ready in 30 mins. satya loved it, said i am a good cook:)
its still snowing outside. it reminds me of those days in thane, when our school used to get cancelled because of rain and later on the trains used to get slowed down and eventually cancelled because of water accumulation at sion-kurla. i remember that being home from school, me, my sister, dad and mom used to play this boardgame "Business". mom used to make hot soup and pakodas:). but whatever happened in mumbai 2 urs ago was very different. the human and property loss was enormous. It being mumbai, the rail and road way systems have recovered if not improved, but for people who lost their loved ones in the rains/flood, even time wont be able to heal them.
hopefully this is just one day thing here. tomorrow everything will be back to normal. Atleast it snowed just 4-7" and not more than that. many citites in USA have high snow fall. they get snowed in for days. Many people live without no heat, water, electricity. They canot drive anywhere, so the only thing to do is stock up on the groceries.
Chicago, for once, is not one of them. and that makes me happy.
D

so they lost.....

So the BEARS lost last weekend. This is something that satya doesn’t want to talk about. He refuses to discuss anything that has to do with the BEARS offence/defense/special team and the entire franchise. Right from the time when the bears won the NFC championship, he collected our newspapers as souvenirs. He resisted the temptation of buying the championship gear saying that he would buy the stuff when we win the super bowl (notice I said we…this is the SATYA influence on me) I was nervous a day prior to the game and I am not even a fan. My colleagues were all excited and had plans to go to all you can eat buffet places. One of them was going to open a vintage bottle of alcohol for the after-victory drink. My boss (he who is born with loads of Irish luck) went down to Miami for the game, had great seats and stayed at the same hotel as the BEARS athletes. I, satya and my bro-inlaw amol wore the team colors for the game. We ordered the American quintessential pizza and beer. The entire city was decked up in orange and blue and the bear jersey nos. They had even planned out the route for the victory parade. People had pre-ordered the Superbowl championship gear. Talks were going on for pay increase for the bears coaching staff. Other teams were interviewing the coaching staff and were trying their best to lure them. The entire city believed in Rex Grossman and his team and had forgiven them for their past debacles. People were ready to forget the 1985 BEARS team which had won the championship and crown the new rulers of Chicago- the BEARS OF 2007 In short, this was OUR time. This was THE year. All we need was the score to be 17-29 BEARS.
But the defense (so I am told) had something else in mind. They decided not to bring their A-Game to Miami. Probably left it at Soldier Field in Chicago. Rex was in his “bad REX” avatar again (so I am told). All the dreams hope and aspiration (of the parade, new championship jerseys, a great finish to an exciting season, being crowned the champions) came crashing down. The BEARS were ridiculed everywhere, from ESPN to the late night talk shows. The people of Indianapolis joke about Rex Grossman (the BEARS quarterback) as their M.V.P instead of Payton Manning (by the way, the Colts quarterback is great, after Tom Brady of course). People around me are sad and depressed. They tell themselves that they had a great season and next year would be THE year. After of course, they run Rex out of the town. As I said, Satya doesn’t want to talk about this. He says it reminds him of 2003 world cup. He is sure he will be better if baseball season starts soon. He is looking forward to the WHITE SOX play ball.
I hope so too that the impending baseball season turns out good and before that the World Cup. Though again I am told that India has a good chance as they play Ireland and such countries in the first round. Otherwise, it’s going to be one very long year at my home – till of course the next football season.

the arrival of MR. FROSTY

It’s been a very cold winter here in Chicago. This year, they say, has been one of the coldest in the past seven years. To tell you the truth I very much expected it. Winter in Chicago starts around thanksgiving and continues through the Christmas, New Year and other frosty freezing icy months through May I would say. People don’t notice how cold it gets during November and December simply because there are other things to occupy their minds. That time of the year, when people get drunk (but they hardly ever need a reason here), dread the family gatherings and scramble around to get an invite for the new years party, I would say is one of the coldest month. All cities around USA are lit with lights and decorated throughout November and December. But come January, and just as you are getting over your new years hangover, the entire city is stripped off its glitzy, warm look and it turns from the young hip uber place to a dark gloomy sad frost stricken place. And I hate it. I hate the sudden transformation. You tend to notice the cold, the snow and the freezing wind-chill that Lake Michigan blows over to Chicago.
You start dreading going to office. Wearing 3 layers of sweaters, 2 layers of gloves, 2 layers of socks, snow jacket, ear muffs, and hat doesn’t seem to help. Wish for warmer places. Think about going to Texas for vacation but this year it snowed over there too. Here last week the recorded temperature was -10deg fah with wind-chill taking it down to -20 deg. dragging yourself to office is a chore especially when you know that you have 3-4 months more of this to endure. Satya says being cold is a state of mind. I beg to differ. Till now I have complained just once about how cold it was here. But after learning that “this is Chicago” I have stopped complaining and tried looking at the warmer side. I am still looking for it and am starting to think that there isn’t one. At this time I wonder what the hell happened to global warming? But still at least it is February. Just 2 more months of freezing hell to endure.
On the other hand, I am enjoying eating bhajias, making different soups, shopping for new sweaters etc. thank god that all the buildings and the public transport are heated. I think I can take 4 blocks of walking in the cold. I am looking forward to spring. Chicago is once of the most beautiful cities to be in spring. This city DOES have 4 seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter (of course winter being the longest). And at times it is beautiful here in winter too. The Chicago river is frozen and so are parts of the lake.
Like someone once said, “life is something to be endured, not enjoyed”, I try applying that maxim by replacing the noun by freezing hell.