Pongal and all that jazz!

So, I've never felt elated about celebrating Pongal except for the food and when I was in Class 2 when we learned about different festivals of India and all that. I'm not even sure if we pray to any God for this particular festival. However, Pongal holds some great childhood memories. Especially one. For us, it was a very Kannada Pongal. We never said Pongal O Pongal to random people. Pongal was food for us, more than the name of the festival. We did not go ballistic about SUN TV Pongal shows until we were 16 and were curious to check out Rajnikanth movies to impress our Madras cousins. However, we did eat some great Pongal at home :D For us, it was Sankranthi.

It meant a holiday, and it meant dressing up and going to every second person's house in the neighbourhood (Reason why one cannot be elated if you are a girl) In fact, the custom in Karnataka is too 'ellu beerufy.' Though the name sounds very alcoholic, alcohol, like most Hindu festivals does not have anything to do with Pongal or Sankranthi. Our mothers and grannies made 'Ellu' - a delicious mixture of sesame seeds, loads of peanuts, small bite-sized pieces of coconut, jaggery and some colourful stuff and Sakkare Acchu (sugar moulds). This was the time when all the women in the neighbourhood'd strive to show how organized they were in the following things:

1. The number of houses that they 'ellu beerufied.' The more you 'ellu beerufy,' the more generous you 'seem.' When, in fact, you are only recycling all the 'ellu' you get :P More importantly, you can take your daughter to more houses and boast about her musical abilities, even if they are non existant.

2. Dressing up. Women dressed up and got their kids dressed up. Husbands dressed up coz women come home to spread the joy..err..'ellu.'

3. Collecting 'ellu' from different houses and commenting on whether it was home-made or bought from stores was fodder until the next year.

4. Creativity was big. Everyone aimed to find that perfect cute little box to give 'ellu' in. Some people went ahead and created a basket with - small cute box, fruit, sugar cane, some small gift, sweet etc. Usually, being South Indians, the basket is not important :P. What is in it is most important, coz basket is for show. However, as I grew up, I saw competition increase to make this as showy as possible. My mom, of course, recycled the 'ellu' - cuter boxes to aunties she liked or needed a favour from. Ugly boxes to people she hated or the Mrs. Jones we always seemed to have. And ya, none of it was the 'ellu' prepared at home. Everything was recycled, coz my granny wouldn't eat anyone else's 'ellu.' (You can roll your eyes here)

5. Kids. One big reason for any spite between two perfectly gossipping-about-third-neighbour-so-getting-along neighbours. This was the time for Aunty to boast about daughter's musical abilities and coax the girls to sing anywhere and everywhere, and also about son's future plans. Didn't matter if he was in Class 5. Sons usually weren't taken on 'ellu' rounds if they were over Class 1.

I remember one such sojourn in my long life as a Tamilian in Karnataka. People get confused about how to wish you. And Karnataka people will go out of their way to wish you in Tamil and say Pongal O Pongal and laugh it away nervously. Very painful when you are a gawky teenager looking for an escape route. So, Pongal for us was dressing up and eating. My mom loved dressing us up. We were 3 of us and this gave her ample scope to use all the bindis in the world, all the jewellery, all those pawadais, and all the kucchus. I admit we were the center of attraction everywhere we went because our clothes were perfect, matched well with jewellery, shoes and what not. The whole day was spent in anticipation of whose houses we were going to visit and who was doing it big this time.

One such Pongal, I was asked to come to my aunt's house. This was another practice. If you did not have young, bored girls in your house, outsource them from someone else's house. Could be your relative or the neighbour girl. Send her with YOUR 'ellu' to house to house. It did not matter that she did not know the people you sent her to! So, this is what happened to me once. Since we are three of us, my mom, like in very medieval ages, was asked to spare one of us for my aunt who had a grown up daughter and a son ( who were too grown up and busy) to come and 'ellu beerufy.' So, off I, the eldest and the most responsible one went, all dressed up across the city to my aunt's place.

I went house to house to everyone's place near my cousin's house and received compliments from everyone. Then, there was one house, a friend of my cousin's. This is when one of the most momentous events of my life happened. They were North Indians, and certainly did not 'ellu beerufy.' However, being the social people that we are and very proud of our 'Halloween-candy' culture, I was sent to their house.

Then, it all happened. I was all of 12 and was on the threshold of finding boys cute, and well, A, the boy of the house, all of 15/16 years was the one for me. I stared at him while he lounged on the expensive showy couch. I even sang without Aunty asking me to sing unlike other houses. My only grouse being that I sang Carnatic music, while all kinds of Hindi movie numbers and dances were playing in my head. I did not touch a thing that Aunty gave to eat though I loved those teeny samosas and orange juice. I gaped and even tried to borrow a book from A. Sigh. If only. A and my cousin were rivals in school and possibly, everywhere else. My cousin hated A and felt that I was unnecessarily being friendly :(

From then on, Pongal has been special. I think of A every Pongal and think of what could've been if it wasn't for a pesky cousin and a badly sung Carnatic number. The next day after Sankranthi in Tamil households is called 'Kanu.' This is the only day, apparently, a girl prays for her mother's house. We place rice balls on Turmeric leaves along with some sugarcane, fruit and some pongal and sing a ditty for the crows inviting them to eat (am not sure any crow hearing my voice) which in gist means:

The crow and the fox are getting married.
I hope they will be okay.
I should live in harmony, just like both of them do.

(This is supposed to bring immense happiness to parents. Daughter being happy and all that! Though I think the lines are meant for both the families to be in harmony.)

I dunno which fox and which crow ever lived in harmony. But I always thought of A when I sang this. This year, it was different. I thought of my husband who woke me up at an unearthly 7 AM, and missed my mom and her pulling me out of bed at 5 AM to sing this ditty.

Ah, I was wrong. Sankranthi means much more than just eating to me. It means first exposure to neighbourhood gossip, first hand exposure to showing off and of course, the first lowe :D