Festivals

Celebrating Ugadhi

Jhanvi and I visited India in April and were lucky to celebrate Ugadhi with our family back home. Ugadhi is the an important festival in South India and is essentially the celebration of the begenning of a new year (yep.. new year in April 🙂 ). One of the specialities of Ugadhi in Andhra Pradesh is something called “Ugadhi Pachadi”. It is a mixture of 6 ingredients (Neem Flower, Jaggery, Red Pepper, Green Mango, Salt and Tamarind) which designate the different “tastes” of life (bitter, sweet, hot, salty, tangy etc).

I haven’t been able to celebrate Ugadhi with my family for more than 10 years. So it was a special occasion. And mom went all the way to make it even more memorable. Here are some pictures.

Hanging Mango Leaves

Garelu

Ugadhi Pachadi : Ingredients

Ugadhi Pachadi : Final

Thanking the divine ones

Happy New Year – 2009

Wishing everyone a happy new year.. While 2008 treated me well professionally, it was a tough one on the personal end. If anything, it made me realize the importance of our near and dear ones. How much we take them for granted..

So let’s tip our glasses to the year of Ox. Hoping that this year will bring us peace, love and health..

Take a moment to say “hello” to those near and dear ones you haven’t called in the last few years :-)..

Happy Holi..

Holi AKA Festival of Colours is an important festival in the Indian tradition meant to celebrate the start of spring.

This picture depicting the joy and colorfulness of Holi is shared from Dey’s collection on flickr.