pongal

Today morning as I was driving down Jispa to her bus stop we saw hordes of ladies all dressed up and trying to celebrate something. All of them looked south Indian and they were accompanied by the children. From a truck near by the men were unloading some sugarcane. I was wondering what is. Jispa was wondering as well. Suddenly I remembered … “Jispa today is the 14th. Right?” yes it sure was. Today is the 14th of Jan. Makarsankranti or Pongal as it is known in different parts of India. I recollected a chapter in my hindi 5th standard textbook on pongal. How today the women wake up in the morning and cook pongal.
There all of the women (from the slum on route) were together celebrating Pongal. All of them had put a few bricks and started a fire over which they were they were cooking pongal. I explained the same to Jispa. I asked her if she knew what pongal was. She didn’t know. So I looked at the watch and saw that we have some time. We in any case leave a bit early to feed biscuits to cute cute bingo (a stray dog). So I told her that today lets try and eat pongal. I knew that some of the south Indian restaurants in matunga would be serving some today morning. I rushed into one (Ramsahraya) and ordered pongal. As it came, I realised that I too did not really know what on earth was pongal. I knew it’s was some rice thing, but I was not sure if its sweet or salty, thick or liquidy… whatever. As it came it was a gob of a dish in the shape of the bowl that was probably used to measure the portion. As I ate I figured, this is not Jispa’s favourite dish. It’s a simple salty rice dish what we commonly call in our language ‘khichadi’. Jispa had a few purely out of excitement. She did not exactly relish it. after some time she tells me that it is just like dal rice. Ya… I tell her ‘its actually like khichadi’. Yaaaa…. Her final reaction with a slightly upturned face (Jasmine will not like this) – “this straightaway takes me to dinner.”

Makarsankranti is a lovely festival that oen needs to be in gujarat to really enjoy with the millions of kites in the skies and every one on the terrace. I had the fortune of being there on while I was placed these in Balsara, and the first occasion I had I took Jispa and Jasmine to my cousin’s place in Rajkot, around four years ago. It fell on a Sunday then. I guess going every six odd years to Gujarat to celebrate this will not be such a bad idea. Enough gap even for the cousins to feel pretty welcoming.