Celebrating Sankranti with family, food, and traditions: Bengaluru celebs share their festive plans

With the arrival of Sankranti /Pongal, Bengalureans have decked their homes with mango leaves, cut up the sugarcane stalks, and readied bowls of ellu-bella to celebrate with family, friends and neighbours.
Celebrating Sankranti with family, food, and traditions: Bengaluru celebs share their festive plans
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BENGALURU: With the arrival of Sankranti /Pongal, Bengalureans have decked their homes with mango leaves, cut up the sugarcane stalks, and readied bowls of ellu-bella to celebrate with family, friends and neighbours. The festive mood has reached Sandalwood celebs, too, who share their fond memories and plans for the harvest festival with Mahima Nagaraju

Priyanka Upendra

When I was a child in Kolkata, we used to fly kites, and because my grandfather was an agriculturist, we decorated the cows and would go to the farm to do a pooja; it was very memorable. Now, we make it a point to celebrate together as a family – us, our kids, my sister-in-law’s kids, and my in-laws have lunch together with dishes like sihi and kara pongal, sugarcane, ellu-bella, and urgadle. Everyone loves payasa in my house so we make it with kharjura bella (date palm jaggery) that we get from Kolkata. For me, the festival is about positivity, being with family, having a meal together and having gratitude – it’s a positive start to the New Year.

Shubra Aiyappa

For me, festivals are all about getting families together. We lead busy lives but these festivals are when we meet our cousins and that’s my favourite part of the festival. I’ve married into a family who loves their food so the sweet preparation has already begun a few days ago. We just get together, pray and eat a lot of sweets! We also love to eat sugarcane so we get tons of sugarcane and keep chomping on that.

Ranjani Raghavan

Sankranti is special for me this year because I’m engaged and my parents are happy to have their son-in-law for the celebrations. Sankranti is special for everyone especially for people involved in agriculture. My mom was born in a village so I grew up hearing about ‘Ookuli habba’ which is like Holi but played with vermilion and turmeric. We also used to make ‘sakkare acchu’ at home with homemade sugar syrup. With everyone being so busy, the method has changed but meeting family, sharing joys and celebrating our culture is still there.

Sakshi Meghana

Since we live in the city, the village flavour is missing but we still celebrate Sankranti in a traditional way. The house gets a new look and is decorated with mango leaves, wreaths of marigold flowers, new curtains and sofa covers. Taking a head bath, performing puja, wearing new clothes, visiting the temple, having sumptuous festival meals, sharing time with friends and relatives are the highlights of the day for me. As a foodie, I’ve loved Sankranti since childhood – I wanted to eat ellu-bella, sugarcane, bananas, mango – everything!

Viraat

Being a Mysurean, I’m all about enjoying Sankranti in the vibrant vibes of Mysore, wearing traditional attire like a panche and a colourful shirt! My mom and sister will be doing the pooja, and I will be waiting for them to finish the pooja so that my day starts with some delicious sweet pongal – can’t resist that sweet! Then, I’ll be with my younger cousins and friends, definitely flying kites. But my favourite part has to be the family gatherings. Everyone comes together from various cities bringing ellu-bella and later, gossip, laughter, and of course, loads of yummy sweets. My go-to tradition every year is to watch all the Sankranti releases in the theatre with my cousins and friends. The experience of watching movies on the big screen, along with the festive atmosphere, is amazing.

Shreyas Manju

My favourite part of Sankranti is when, as a child growing up in a village, we used to cut the crops and celebrate ‘kichhu haisodu’. It’s a tradition where cattle are made to jump over fire – it’s a happy moment that’s close to my heart as I’ve always done that since my childhood. A moment of pride for me, is wearing a reshme panche and going back to our roots, in the village, surrounded by nature.

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