Several temples, big and small, lined the road to my school. As a God-fearing young girl, I religiously stopped for a minute at each shrine and offered my prayers. From “Let the Physics teacher be on leave today” to “Let classes be suspended for some reason”, I always had a plea to make. I’m not sure if any of these prayers were answered, but I kept the faith and prayed, and adorned my forehead with various hues of kum-kum, ranging from pink to maroon, each day.
Ram Navmi usually coincided with the last day of school before a two-month long summer vacation, and also happened to be the day the results of the final exams were announced. The day saw me and a lot of other kids walk to school cheerfully, with big plans for the summer holidays, and without the burden of school or school bags weighing us down for a change.
One temple along the way was dedicated to Lord Hanuman and his being the greatest disciple of Lord Ram, called for a grand celebration of the festival. As devotees thronged to offer their prayers to the two deities; volunteers – mostly young men, distributed cool Belada hannina Paanaka and majjige, out of large earthen pots. The cold juice and buttermilk provided some respite from the scorching summer heat and was rarely refused by a passerby. Larger temples distributed kosumbri on pieces of plantain leaves and it was not uncommon to see people take home the “Prasada”. These together with Huli Avalakki and Rasayana were the delicacies associated with Ram Navmi.
Ram Navmi was special. While Ugadi brought with it a brand new calendar year, “Pass” on the result sheet on Ram Navmi, marked the beginning of a new academic year; starting with two months of fun and frolic!
10 comments:
Oh dear! I was just planning to post on Ramnavami and here you go!!! Ate kosambari and rasayana on sunday morning and was planning to write about it...
ate huli avalakki as well :-))
Occupied with making Obbattu, I missed posting on Ugadi, didn't want to miss Ram Navmi too. :-)
Did u have belada hannina paanaka? I love that!! I don't think it's available here, even if it is, I don't know what it's called. :-(
wow!! you made obbattu!!! Belada hannina panaka..nope, didnt have it. had the usual nimbe hannina panaka.
so, what else do you cook?
Yeah, made Obbattu. But since I could not get chiroti rave, it didn't turn out that well. Converted the remaining Hoorna to Hayagreeva!! :-) That was GOOD! :-)
Lots of free time here Savitha, it also helps that I love cooking, so I do cook a lot of North and South Indian food.
..not to mention the various music festivals at Shankarapuram and Fort High School! I miss those terribly.
My mouth is watering hearing about Obbattu, Hoorna and Hayagreva!!! Man, I envy your cooking skills. All I did for the festival was to buy a packet of Haldirams Soan Papdi!!! Needless to say, Soan Papdi was good, but, would any day prefer home made Obbattu.
Festivals also remind me of how frustrated I used to be when I was not allowed to eat the Obbattu, the day it was prepared - which usually happened to be the previous day of the festival. I was told that Obattu would be given the next day morning, only after the morning pooja was done
:-(.
Also as 'quizman' has written in his comment, Ram Navmi coincided with Carnatic music festival at Sheshadripuram and Fort High School. I used to attend those whenever I could.
Raghu
Quizman: Namma Bengalooru...miss everything!
Raghu: More than Obbattu on Ugadi, I would be shattered when my mom would start making all the thindi for Ganesh Chathurthi days in advance and not let me eat any before the festival. And Sankranthi...God only knows how I stopped myself from eating Sakkre Achchu & yellu! :-)
I just found out that we have started a blog with the same TITLE.
Isn't interesting?
giovanni: That is interesting!! Wanted to see if we had anything else in common other than the title, but looks like you have opted not to make your profile public. So I couldn't visit your blog! :(
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