This week, Bengaluru slips into a cultural overlap, as many homes celebrate Puthandu (Tamil New Year), Vishu (Kerala New Year) and Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year), almost together, marking the New Year for the Malayali, Tamil and Bengali communities. Be it the symbolism of Vishu Kani to the hopeful resets of Puthandu and the vibrant beginnings of Poila Boishakh, each celebration in different homes carries its own rhythm. In a city known for embracing all cultures rooted in distinct traditions alike, where many live away from where they grew up, these festivals become a way to hold on to memories while also creating new ones. With traditions recreated in apartments instead of ancestral homes to rituals adapted to busy schedules and nostalgia often sitting alongside new, urban meanings, Bengalureans share what these days mean to them, the rituals they never miss and how they are celebrating this year.
Typically, my mom prepares her famous meal using the jaggery brought from Calcutta. I celebrate both Poila Boishakh and the Kannada New Year. We do a small get-together with family. This time, I’ve booked my tickets to Lakshadweep to start the New Year on a new note; it is the first time I won’t be with my parents. Poila Boishakh falls around my birthday as well so it’s a double celebration with a special kheer by my mom. When we were younger, we got new clothes on this particular day, but now I’m extremely conscious about sustainability, so I’ve stopped following that tradition. I’d rather be more on the charitable front.
Puthandu is a way to restart my year and hold myself accountable to the resolutions I skipped on Jan 1. But it’s also about waking up to my mom cooking and handing me heated hair oil and of course, eating a proper meal, taking the fattest nap and heading out for a New Year movie release. I now run back home for it. It’s less about routine and more about how I want to feel. Nothing beats an elai sapadu with paruppu vada, rice, sambar, poriyal, ending with my mom’s special payasam – it’s comfort, nostalgia, everything in one.
Puthandu feels like a moment to slow down in the middle of everything. I don’t celebrate it in a grand way, but I make sure I spend it meaningfully – being around family, sharing a meal and just being present. Starting the day by seeing fruits, flowers and light is something I’ve held on to. If I had to pick one favourite thing, it would be the mango pachadi – the mix of sweet, sour and bitter… it feels like a reflection of life itself.
I wake up early to see Vishu Kani, which is considered the first and most auspicious sight of the year. Because I live away from my parents, celebrating Vishu has definitely changed over the years. I have to recreate moments on my own, which makes me miss home. The celebrations are simpler, but they still carry the same emotional value. One of my favourite memories was receiving money from elders – it felt like a treat. But now, we’ve become the ones giving Vishu Kaineettam, and there’s something really heartwarming about that shift.
Unlike many, Vishu is my favourite festival because of a lot of factors. One is Vishu crackers – we start bursting it a week before, and then the day before and after, we go searching for anything that hasn’t been burst and light them. Another reason is the money – in North Kerala, it’s not coins – they give a lot of money, and we travel to every relative’s house to collect it. So it’s also about meeting everyone after a long time. We had a big konna tree [golden shower tree, often associated with Vishu, the flowers are placed alongside for Kani] right in front of my house, and that’s something I really miss now, celebrating in Bengaluru. We also miss foods like unniyappam, kareppam and different payasams. Here, we make them, but it’s not the same. We can’t even burst crackers like before or meet all relatives because of traffic, so celebrations are smaller. One major thing I miss now during Vishu is something called undalinga – a harder, smaller version of unniyappam. And unlike the southern part of Kerala, we include chicken fry and fish fry, which we really cherish and relish with sadhya.