Love celebrating Ponggal ( the Indian harvest festival)....for its all about sweets and nourishment...and what better way to start a year....and since it falls in the second week of January...it always prolongs the new years celebrations...16 years ago around this time....i was in India...celebrating Ponggal with my parents , grandparents...uncles , aunties....cousins and a whole bunch of other relatives...what an experience it was....i was in my moms village....so , actually witnessed the very original way of celebrating Ponggal...for they are all farmers and have worked all year through for their bountiful harvest....and deserve to celebrate it . Its a 4 days celebration over there ...begins with the "Boghi" where you gather all your old and unwanted things to be burnt in a huge fire....the significance of doing this is to let go of your past and start anew...to leave behind anything thats negative...and make a fresh start mentally and physically.
Then the next day.....its called veetu Ponggal.....where the entire village...makes fire in front of their own little huts to cook the sweet sticky rice with an earthen pot....everyone pours the milk into their pots at the same time...and waits to see who's milk boils first....and the moment someones milk comes to a boil and flows out of the pot..we could hear ladies and young girls of that family screaming " PONGALO PONGGAL"....which is a way of announcing to the rest of the village that their milk had boiled . And the process continues with adding in the rice...brown sugar and butter and stirring it till it cooks well....then
The third day is for the cows....everyone in the village brings their cows to one spot....adorn them with flowers, bells and color their horns with bright paint ....pray to them showing gratitude to the sacred cows....
I will never forget that day.....when we all gathered at an open field...sat down by the moonlight....and they made me sing....i sang a semi classical song from a tamil movie....katrodu kuzhalin naathamey...which is about lord krishna...then the ladies gathered to do the "Kummi" dance...which is going in rounds clapping their hands in a particular rhythm...my mom joined in this dance as well...its all surreal to think of it now...it was so beautiful....something we only see in the movies.
Probably that experience while i was India....made me keep up with that Ponggal celebration till now..i try my best to create that atmosphere here....but it somehow never came close to that experience...living here in Kuala Lumpur....where the moonlight struggles its way through the city lights to touch the ground...it is far from nature....but still...whats more important is that "FEEL'....and when you could feel it ...the atmosphere is created....
so as always....i called a few beautiful friends for dinner....i adorned my house with sugar canes...and used an earthen pot to cook the sweet sticky rice....but of course i cant start a fire outside my house to cook it...or the Bomba will be here the next instant....so i use my gas stove to do it....cooked a few traditional vegetarian dishes....and had banana leaves to serve it....it was fun..and filled with laughter !! Happy to start the year with lots of sweets :)
