Once upon a time… Festivals or Habba in Bangalore…… (1) It is a common belief there over 33 crores of Hindu Gods at last count and to accommodate them within 365 days is a herculean task and rather kind of stuffy and cramping for them too. Our ancestors wisely downsized their numbers and the best of them are earmarked for celebrations through the year. Those days, in the Sixties, festivals or habbas played a major part in one’s life, as it meant different things to different age groups. In Bangalore, while Thaatha and Ajji prepared for the somber religious event by making preparations for the puja, just imagining the feast to follow - habbada Oota - made salivating youngsters jump around impatiently. Words such as ‘inflation’ or ‘recession’ figured rarely in conversations then, still Appa had his own worry lines wondering how he was going to manage the money. Amma had her hands full from the crack of dawn with chores like churning buttermilk to grinding masalas on grindstone for curry powder and had to make sure everything went as per schedule. Habbas always started with Ganesha Chaturthi coming just after Southwestern monsoon rains, the mungaaru male by worshipping Ganesha the Lord of Learning and remover of obstacles in one’s progress through Life more so, for the forthcoming examinations for some. From the day the hall-ticket was issued to the day the results were announced, most students went on a pilgrimage to the Dodda Ganesha Temple in Basavanagudi every morning, with only this on their lips: ‘Ganesha! Please help me for once, this year, and ensure my number appears in the list that has passed!’ The plea changed with time like ‘please get me a seat in engineering or medical college’ or ‘please arrange an eligible bachelor for me before the next Bheemana Amaavaase’! (A function celebrated at home for the well-being of future / present husbands). Of course, Ganesha answered their prayers in installments which meant it was always work-in-progress and more visits were due. It was the practice in most household to send a younger brother to tow along with his sister even during her visits to temples. Boys dating a girl never arose; dates are what you saw in calendar apart from fruit by the name you ate rarely like when your long lost uncle brought from a place you didn’t knew it existed.. Boys got to see a girl only in the company of her brother or an aged unsmiling no- nonsense aunt, from a respectable distance even as she took mangalaarathi in karpoorada Aarathi in translucent light looking even more radiant and bewitching. While a few celebrated Gauri habba - Gauri mother of Ganesha a day before, Ganesha, the Lord of Learning was the harbinger of good and auspicious times and remover of obstacles called Nirvighna. Bringing Ganesha home was an auspicious start to the festival itself. I would go to the market with my elder brother and sister to bring Ganesha Home. The youngest member of the family would lead by ringing the brass auspicious bell, and an elder sibling would follow carrying the idol behind! These days, such diligence and care is reserved only while bringing LED Wall-model TV set. Flowers and fruits were brought from market where prices mysteriously doubled over previous day. The night before, we would tie thorana – mango leaves strung together across the main door with a bunch of the same at either ends. After doing puja with janivaara – holy cross belt of cotton threads- worn across the body and reciting Gayathri manthra it was time for the sweet kadubu - a steam-baked preparation of rice with hurna, sweet mixture of jaggery , coconut and ground lentil inside. Kadubu or modakam in Sanskrit was the most favorite sweet of Ganesha. Sometimes our elders would invite Purohitaru to conduct the pujas. At the end, they were served lunch on a plantain leaf after which the household members followed suit with Amma and Ajji eating last. By the time they finished their lunch it would be well past 3 in the afternoon, no wonder purohitaru would get into Q &A snoring session with each other after a heavy lunch topped with dessert of gasa gase paayasa. (Sweet gravy dish with poppy seeds.) Beatles popularized poppy seeds in a different format with altogether different effect! Almost all installed Ganesha idols at home and offered puja. It was the practice of boys to visit 108 Ganeshas in homes in the locality. As part of the ritual, Ganesha, made of clay is usually immersed in lakes or streams after the ceremony is over. After the immersion prasada-offering of Rasaayana- an absolutely delightful dish made of best things in life – jaggery, coconut, banana, grapes, cashew nuts and a dash of saffron was served. Gods must be on a daily diet of Rasaayana, which explains their satisfied and radiant look in most of the pictures. Ganesha is usually immersed on odd days such as 1st, 2rd 5th day. The last day of immersion is called Anantha chaturdasi. In saavajanik Mandalis – Ganeshas installed in factories, schools and cooperative housing societies are taken to various ponds and lakes for immersion. In most schools it was an annual practice to take Ganesha in a procession around the locality with students smartly dressed in school uniform and marching to a live band and ultimately immersing the idol in Lal Bagh Lake. Immediately after the immersion, prasada of HuLiyanna and Mosaranna (Curry rice and Curd rice) were served by the lakeside. When it was time to leave, students would raise a howl demanding holiday the next day as they had walked covering half the city in the procession. Standing as he was close to the lake, The Headmaster didn’t have a much of a choice as he had just seen what an immersion was like. Without risking his own, and with clamoring students coming closer, before push could become a shove, he would announce a holiday with alacrity! At the fag end of monsoon rains with overflowing lakes comes Gokulaashtami – birth of Lord Krishna. Some communities, especially the Iyengars, celebrate the function at midnight the time of birth of Krishna. Iyengars were once reputed for their 108 varieties of snacks, which inflation reduced the number to 18 finally has trickled down to 8. Still that’s the time to befriend Iyengar friends with fond hope of mouth -watering dishes coming one’s way! Hot on the heels of Ganesha and Gokulashtami came Dasara or Navaraathri for which it seemed the world had converged on little Mysore to see the grandest of functions Jambu savari where the ruling King Jayachamaraja Wodeyar seated on a golden Howda rode on an elephant from his Palace to Banni mantapa to offer traditional prayers. Most homes in Bangalore created a ‘toy exhibition’ park by erecting a nine-step pavilion where toys made of mud, wood and bamboo were neatly arranged in neat rows and columns. Girls drew elaborate sketches using colour powders on a drawing boards depicting Saraswati- the Goddess of learning. These have been replaced by Technology Parks and Software Parks. Children visited homes in their locality with a query as they entered a house asking, ‘Bombe koodseedira?’ (Have you displayed toys for us to see?’). For nine nights children would visit to see new ‘phut phut’ sputtering motor boat doing the rounds on a basin filled with water; a new drawing of Goddess Durga or Parvathi on a drawing board filled with colour powder or a toy train racing around a lap on railway track. Ingenuity marked the festivals at Navarathri as each day you had to come out with something new to catch children’s’ attention. Girls would be asked to sing devaranaamas . Some would sing, ‘Lambodara lakumikara’, ‘kaayousri Gauri, karuna lehare, thoyaaajaakshi shankareeshvari’ or ’Swami devane loka paavane the namosthu namosthte’. Every day, the lady in each house made a charpu- an offering usually a sweet - for them. After they offered puja by sprinkling mantraakshate – rice grains smeared with turmeric on the God and prostrating before the deity, they would get some sweets – like kobbari sakkare ( a mixture of dry coconut and sugar),or Kadale hittu sakkare ( mixture of groundnut powder with sugar- also called ‘gun powder’)or sometimes chickpeas with dry coconut – usuli - in a donne - a cup made of dry leaves. Navaraathri marked nine nights of prayer, gaiety and fun. In Some temples as in Shankara Mutt, Shankarapuram there was a new decoration every evening. Shaakaanbari would delight the environmentally- conscious Greens now as the deity was fully covered in green vegetables. The Eighth day coincided with Aayudha Puja – a unique concept where we pay our obeisance to the tools that take care of our lives, be it the spanner and screw drivers, the vehicles, sewing machines, cycle, scooter or the cars. Tools in factory and machines are all cleaned thoroughly and rested for the day. At home, our cycles along with the vick lamp which emitted more smoke than light also got a thorough wash after which the cycle handle was decorated for the flowers. We would ride the cycles in scissor- style of cycle, (kathri) as our legs were not long enough to reach the pedals! On Saraswati puja day, text and notebooks were kept in front of goddess Saraswati praying her to shower knowledge though, some send their own secret prayer to the deity; ‘help me get good marks in the just concluded first terminal examination; otherwise I will be dead before I get Appa’s signature on the marks card!’ This was the time for official and unofficial holiday from studies. While the schools were closed for dasara holidays, all the books neatly arranged in front of the deity were not allowed to be taken out till the day after Vijayadashami, the last day of Dasara! In Delhi, Dussera is celebrated even now in Ram Lila Grounds on Vijaya Dasahmi where effigies of demons Ravan, Kumbhakaran and Meghananad are burnt to mark the victory of good over evil the only difference being political leaders have jumped to the bandwagon of burning the effigies even though some of their own actions raised a question mark which side they belong to! To be continued…. ….Habba ( 2) …. E.R. Ramachandran
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 05:09:33 +0000
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