Ugadi celebration is going on in full swing in Bangalore. Houses are decorated with mango leaves and drawn rangoli in front of the houses. Some houses have rangoli and topped with a pot which contains mango leaves and coconut. Sweet stalls are having special delicacies for the Ugadi festival. Most of the sweets have the ingredients of coconut and jaggery.

Ugadi is celebrated in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. While it is called Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, in Maharashtra it is known as "Gudipadava".

On Ugadi day, people wake up before the break of dawn and take a head bath after which they decorate the entrance of their houses with fresh mango leaves. The significance of tying mango leaves relates to a legend. It is said that Kartik (or Subramanya or Kumara Swamy) and Ganesha, the two sons of Lord Siva and Parvathi were very fond of mangoes. As the legend goes Kartik exhorted people to tie green mango leaves to the doorway signifying a good crop and general well-being.

Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous Ugadi.

Valentine’s day is the day assigned to the cupid stricken lovers all over the world to exchange their tokens of affection. It is celebrated on February 14, every year. It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery and sending greeting cards in the name of St. Valentine, the patron saint of lovers.

The exact origin of the day remains mysterious but there are three main theories behind the origin of the day.

• The first is that the celebrations on this day are the continuation of an ancient pagan fertility festival Christianized by the Church
• The second is that in the Mediaeval European belief that birds start their mating season on February 14. However, this belief has no scientific basis as birds don’t mate in February in England.
• The third is, it is the date on which Saint Valentine was martyred.

Today, three saints with the name Valentine are recognized by the Catholic church and strangely all three of them were martyred on February 14. But the favorite valentine is the 3rd century Roman priest who practiced Christianity and performed secret marriages of young men against the orders of King Claudius-II, who believed that single men made better soldiers and hence outlawed marriage for young men.

Valentine’s day began as a love letter lottery in Rome. According to legends, the tradition of writing letters was started by St. Valentine himself who fell in love with the jailor’s daughter and sent her a letter signed “From your Valentine” before being executed. Now, the letter writing ritual stopped and took the form of gifts, chocolates, flower bouquets and greeting cards.

Now all these responsibilities related to the valentine’s day is taken over by the card and gift companies to make the festival of lovers a grand success.

Maha Shivarathri is the day to worship Lord Shiva. Normally Shiva is worshipped in the form of Linga, which symbolizes purusha (man) in celestial form. It is called Maha Shivarathri since it falls in the month of Magha. Most of the festivals are celebrated in the day time but Maha Shivarathri is celebrated in night as Lord Shiva is believed to have saved the universe from darkness and ignorance. It is a night of death and a new life.

The belief behind this festival is, on this day, Lord Shiva is believed to have drank the deadly poison (Halahalam) that emerged while churning the ocean of milk (Palazhi) and saved the whole universe. The main concerns of the festival are ahimsa, Satya, compassion, forgiveness to followers and overcoming jealousy. On this day, anybody can worship Shiva by fasting and staying awake all night. Fasting should be observed from sunrise to next day sunrise and on this day, the Shiva Linga is bathed in panchamruta (a mixture of milk, curd, ghee, sugar and honey), chanting Rudra Mantra and offering bael leaves (in Malayalam it is called Koovalam) and flowers.

We can achieve peace and prosperity by worshipping Lord Shiva since he is believed to have the power to destroy and forgive our sins that we make in our daily life. Shiva is the final frontier for fulfilling all desires.

Pongal is one of the festivals celebrated by Tamils across the world. It is the festival of harvest. It usually falls in the mid of January and in Kerala it is celebrated as Makara Sankranti. The day marks the Sun’s journey to northwards or Uttarayan. 

Pongal is celebrated for four days of which second day or Pongal day is very important. In Tamil “Pongal” means boiling over of milk and rice. The celebrations include cleaning of house, cooking delicious Pongal dishes, drawing Rangoli (Kolam), cleaning and decorations for animals like cow, buffalo, etc.,

Pongal dishes include Venn Pongal, Sakkara Pongal, Khara Pongal etc..

Traditional feast on the Pongal day

One of the Pongal Rangoli design or Kolam

on the third day, Mattu Pongal, animals are decorated like this

Pongal ingredients are same for all types of Pongal dishes except the flavoring like Venn Pongal it is plain salt taste, Sakkara Pongal either sugar or Jaggery is used, in Khara Pongal green chilly is used more for making the dish hot, etc..

The basic ingredients for Pongal is

1. White rice – 1 cup
2. Moong dhal – 1/4 cup
3. Cumin seeds (Jeera) – 1/2 tsp
4. Peppercorns – 1 tsp
5. Pepper freshly ground – 1/2 tsp
6. Cashew nuts broken – 25 gms
7. Desiccated Coconut – 1/2 cup
8. Turmeric powder – for coloring
9. Ghee 100 gms

Method of Preparation:

1. Fry the Moong dhal a little till its raw smell disappears
2. Mix the dhal with rice, add 2 -3 cups of water (the rice should cook very very soft)
3. Add turmeric powder, coconut, a few peppercorns and a 1-2 tsp of ghee to the rice and pressure cook till done.
4. Heat ghee in a Kadhai add fry cumin seeds, pepper corns and cashew nuts.
5. Stir in seasoning to  the cooked rice mixture with  pepper powder and salt to taste.

Your Venn Pongal is ready to serve. The ideal side dish is coconut chutney and Uradu vada. It tastes better if more ghee is added.

Wishing you all a very Happy Tamil New year!!!!!!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas.

New Year 2010 is coming near and all of you will be looking for New Year Greetings. These days SMS is the easiest and smartest way to greet your friends and near ones. I have a collection of New Year SMS which could be useful for you

• Lovely New Year SMS
• Astrochatro New Year SMS
• Mumbai Mirchi New Year SMS
• SMS Ringo New Year SMS
• WhereInCity New Year SMS

Diwali is known as the “festival of lights” and prevails “good over evil”. For Diwali, we usually clean our house, wear new cloths, prepare special dishes, light lamps (diyas), perform Lekshmi Pooja, exchange gifts and finally “Fireworks”.

As a kid, Diwali always meant Crackers to me, but now, I am held back thinking about the consequences of these fireworks.

Just look at these statistics even though its of few years back

Source: CSC India

The pollution is growing so high and these fireworks create a lot of health issues. People who are having respiratory problems trend to aggravate and suffer during and after this Festival. We should try to minimize the use of fireworks and care about the people who get into trouble because of this festive activity. Karnataka state pollution control board has already taken some measures to educate people to go environment friendly this Diwali and celebrate Diwali with lamps and light and avoid any causes of pollution.

Its not just the air pollution, but a lot of noise pollution happens during Diwali. I would request people celebrating Diwali with crackers to think about others who would be suffering due to your act.

Happy Diwali – Please go Environment Friendly

2008 is going to end in a few hours from now and we will be into another new year. 2008 had its own importance with many historical events, especially for Maldives where I live and work for the few years now. The first historical multi-party elections, new Supreme court, a New President for Maldives and lots of changes in Maldives.

I was just going through a news website and saw that Disco is banned by the Government, so there will be no Disco for the New year eve for people in Maldives, but I am sure this is not for the Resorts in Maldives. New constitution is implemented, new labour law and many to talk about.

2009 should be a tough year as we see lots of layoffs going around the world, the global economy is effected and everybody is thinking of measures to reduce financial burdens and cost cutting. Anyway, lets hope for the best, work hard and try to archive the set targets.

Wishing you all a very happy and a prosperous new year.

I am sure, you will be looking for some sites to send Free Diwali Greetings to your friends and loved ones. I have complied a list of websites from where you can send Free Diwali Greetings. Last year I had written about Diwali and I had got good number of Reponses from my readers.

1. Diwali  Festivals
2. Diwali Greetings
3. 123Greetings
4. Diwali Greetings.Net
5. Diwali Greetings.Us
6. 123Diwali
7. DGreetings
8. ECard4All
9. Cool Buddy
10. Indiatimes Greetings

These are some sites from where you can send Diwali Greetings.

Wishing you all a Very happy Diwali. I have been missing Diwali for the past 6 years. I had never got a chance to go to India during Diwali after I came to Maldives for my job

Vishu a festival for Keralites which fall on the first of Malayalam Calendar Medam 1st. Vishu is celebrated as the New year for Keralites / Malayalees and some parts of Tamilnadu.

Traditional people of Kerala celebrated Vishu with lot of joy and mirth. One very interesting custom of Vishu is Vishukani or Kani Kanal (first sight). Under this tradition there is a prescribed list of items that people see first thing on a Vishu morning. The custom stems from the strong belief of the people of Kerala that good things seen on the New Year day brings good luck for the entire year.

I remember my parents and other elders giving me money as Vishi Kai Neetam. My Mother used to wake me up and close my eyes and take me the pooja room and open my eyes to see the “Vishukani”. Vishukani is the first thing that we see at the begining of this new year. Vishukani is Wishing you all a Happy new year