Tag Archives: India

Festivals of India: Pola

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A little-known thanksgiving festival, Pola or Bail Pola is celebrated by farmers in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh to acknowledge the importance of bulls and oxen, who are a crucial part of agriculture and farming activities. It falls on the day of the Pithori Amavasya the new moon day in the month of Shraavana, which usually falls in August. During Pola, farmers don’t work their bulls in the farmland, and the day is a school holiday in the rural parts of Maharashtra. This year, the festival of Pola falls today, 26 August.

The cow is considered a sacred animal and is worshipped in the Hindu religion. The states of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka celebrate the festival called Bail Pola whereas, in states like Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the day is also celebrated as Pola Amavasya. The Hindu God and Goddesses are accompanied by animals like a bull named Nandi to Lord Shiva, and the Cow to Lord Krishna. This day is celebrated by the farmers of Maharashtra to pay importance to the cows and bullocks named Bail Pola, meaning Bullock Pola.

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The festival is celebrated among the Marathas of central and eastern Maharashtra with a similar festival observed by farmers in other parts of India, known as Mattu Pongal in the South and Godhan in the North and West India. In Telangana, a similar festival is celebrated on full moon day and is called Eruvaka Purnima.

In preparation for the festival, bulls are washed and massaged with oils and then decorated with shawls, bells, and flowers, and their horns coloured, and they get new reins and ropes. The decorated cattle are offered a special food called khichadi, made of bajari or pearl millet. The decorated bulls and oxen are walked in a procession to the village field accompanied by music and dancing with lezhims, a musical instrument found in Maharashtra made of a wooden rod and an iron chain full of metallic pieces and drums. The first bullock to go out is an old bullock with a wooden frame called makhar tied on its horns. This bullock is made to break a toran, a wreath of mango leaves stretched between two posts, and is followed by all the other cattle in the village. A big fair is also organised during the festival including various sports activities including volleyball, wrestling, kabaddi and kho-kho.

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Homes in the village are decorated with rangolis and toran on top of doors. Puja thalis with kumkum, water, and sweets are prepared, and when the cattle are returned from the procession they are formally greeted by family members, with an earthen lamp with ghee for puja and aarti. On the day following Pola, children decorate wooden bulls with beads and flowers.

It is believed that the festival has gotten its name from mythological events and texts. In one of the episodes of Lord Krishna’s life where he killed a demon named Polasur to save the villagers while still a child. And so this day is dedicated to children and animals and children get special treatment on this day.

In My Hands Today…

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Three Thousand Stitches: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives – Sudha Murty

Two decades ago, when Sudha Murty approached a group of devadasis for the first time, determined to make a difference to their lives, they threw a chappal at her.

Undeterred, she went back, telling herself she must talk to the devadasis about the dangers of AIDS. This time, they threw tomatoes.

But she refused to give up. The Infosys Foundation worked hard to make the devadasis self-reliant, to help educate their children, and to rid the label of the social stigma that had become attached to it.

Today, there are no temple prostitutes left in the state of Karnataka. This is the powerful, inspirational story of that change initiative that has transformed thousands of lives.

In My Hands Today…

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The Lost River: On The Trail of the Sarasvati – Michel Danino

The Lost River explores the geography, history, and mythology, of the Sarasvati river, drawing from various sources like folklore, the Vedas, archaeology, local practices, history, geology, and meteorology. The book explains that the river, its very existence, and its course have been discussed and speculated over for years. The magnificence of the Sarasvati has been detailed in scriptures like the Rig Veda. Historians and archaeologists could not understand how it mysteriously ceased to exist. Some of the even deem the river a myth.

This book attempts the deduce facts from fable and makes a strong case for the existence of the river. It goes over the upheavals that the Indian subcontinent went through thousands of years ago, explaining the dry weather, erosion, and tectonic events that changed the terrain, altered river courses, and may have made the Sarasvati disappear. The book then chronicles explorations into the river started, which began around the early nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered by British officials doing topographic explorations.

The book also explains the culture around that time, shedding light on the Indus valley civilisation and the rich and flourishing culture of Harappa. The book goes on the show the results of explorations into the river’s origins and course using modern technology like satellite imagery and isotope analysis. The author has also used his proof of the existence of the river to bolster his theory that Aryans were indigenous to India and not foreign invaders.

What makes one a Mumbaikar

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After doing a similar post for Singapore, on the occasion of India’s 75th Independence Day, I had to do one for the city of my birth, my beloved Mumbai.

A Mumbai resident is known as a Mumbaikar, though when it used to be Bombay, we called ourselves Bombayites. I guess the change from Bombay to Mumbai meant that the word also changed and became the Marathi Mumbaikar where kar is the Marathi word for a resident.

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It is said, Mumbai is a city while Bombay is an emotion. Mumbai is full of dreamers and the place where people’s dreams are realised and extinguished. It is said that if one has lived in Bombay and has travelled in the local trains then one can survive in any other city. Officially Mumbai, Bombay is still used interchangeably by many locals.

Mumbaikars live a very fast-paced life and why not, given that the bulk of the population spends a few hours daily just on their commute, whether for school, college or work. I know of friends and colleagues who would spend a minimum of two hours each way on the trains to get to their destination. And speaking of trains, the Mumbai local is the lifeline of the city and if for some reason, trains shut down, the city comes to a standstill. The life of a Mumbaikar, especially one who needs the train to get to work or school revolves around train timings. So their conversations are peppered with train timings and what time to reach the station. And within the train is something that is uniquely Mumbai – the train friends. So what are these train friends? Train friends are those who invariably take the same train as you do daily. Over time, these people become friends. And this is a category of friends who may move outside the train or remain within the train itself.

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A Mumbaikar is a perfect amalgamation of pan India. A blend of the North and South and to this is added the Eastern and the Western parts of India which it is already a part of. If you ask a Mumbaikar for directions, you will not be told of the direction in kilometres, but rather the time it will take you to get there. It’s very common to travel long distances to get from one place to the other because unlike other cities, Mumbai is set up in a north-south alignment so this means that long distances are inevitable and this does not faze a Mumbaikar.

Mumbai has one of the highest literacy rates in India,  94.7% which is significantly higher than the country’s average. Though the official state language is Marathi; 16 other major languages are spoken in the city including English. The city is the commercial and entertainment capital of India as well as its most populous city. With a high number of migrants and diverse religious groups, Mumbai is truly a melting pot of cultures. Mumbai can be called the true and first cosmopolitan city of India because this is a city that brings together people of different communities, religions and customs and the city is known for its diversity which can be hard to find elsewhere in India. In any building society, it’s quite easy to see people from many Indian states who live together and celebrate all festivals. The inhabitants of the city can be called a microcosm of India’s population.

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The Bambaiya Hindi which is maligned in Bollywood films is a blend of Hindi, Marathi and English. While this brand of Hindi. While the Hindi may not be as pure as what is spoken in Delhi and the northern parts of India, it’s not too bad. What is shown in television and films is an exaggerated version spoken. Neither I nor my family, friends or acquaintances have spoken like this daily.

But at the end of the day, Mumbai has a heart of gold. I have written previously about how the city comes together to help during a calamity or crisis and that is what is important.

A Mumbaikar loves Mumbai, plain and simple and once they identify themselves as a Mumbaikar, they remain one till the end of their lives. I may not travel to Mumbai now as often as I want to, but you can take Mumbai out of my life, but you can’t take the Mumbaikar out of me.

To end this post, an old song which beautifully captures the spirit of Mumbai, though it was Bombay then. This song is from the old classic C.I.D which was released in 1956 and starred Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman in the leading roles. And this shows you how Bombay was in the fifties, with trams running and wide, uncrowded roads.

In My Hands Today…

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Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire – Ira Mukhoty

In 1526 a Timurid warrior-scholar rides into Delhi to build an empire. With him ride his wives, his sisters, his daughters, his aunts and his distant female relatives.

Unhindered by a relatively recent conversion to Islam, these women will help found a culture of such magnificence and beauty that it will become a by-word for opulence in the world. These Mughal women of Hindustan — unmarried daughters, eccentric sisters, fiery milk-mothers and beautiful wives, will contribute to the great syncretic culture of the Mughals by writing biographies, building monuments, engaging in diplomacy, and patronizing the arts.

And even as the zenana changes from the earlier nomadic, tented spaces to the later more sequestered grandeur within the high stone walls of mighty qilas, the influence of the women remains visible and unquestioned. This book looks at the lives of these Mughal women, and the enigma of their disappearance, except as objects of curiosity, from our collective memory.