Earliest Memory of my Chilhood

Yesterday (March 25, 2009), while returning home at night after seeing off my cousin at the Airforce base, My Aunt asked me to recall my earliest memory of childhood; and promptly I replied to her that it was of dusk or twilight in Choudwar (oldest town and former capital of Orissa). She asked me to describe the sight and sound, to which I replied that I hazily recalled the pastel colours of blue and pink in the sky and cluster of green trees and bushes gradually merging into the black of the night and the vesper songs of the birds returning to their nests gradually replaced by the onerous distant howl of the invisible jackels.

On studiously listenening to my narration my brother remaked, "Didi, you sound so ghoulish!!"

To which I smiled and remarked, are we all not humans in the present and ghosts reliving our past. Little did I realise that it was the eve of Ugadi, the festival of new life and promise.

Friends, I recalled all this on the eve of Ugadi that we are celebrating today (March 27, 2009)

Happy Ugadi

Happy Ugadi !

Ugadi, a festival of life which marks the completion of a lifecycle in the form of seasons and renewal or rebirth marked by the spring season. It reflects the joy of the sons of the soil: "The cultivators" better known as the "Farmers". The use of Mango and Neem leaves is to purify the homestead of germs and virus active during this time causing pox, cholera and many such diseases.

Ugadi marks the beginning of the New Year in the state of Karnataka in India. It transends all boundaries of religion, caste and creed and ties everyone by the common thread of love and harmony like a bouquet of flowers of myriad hues.

I wish my friends to shed more light on this festival, its origin and evolution to how it is celebrated today.