Pandigai 2009 – Round 1

Ok.. so the serious attempt I made at blogging a few months ago in April certainly became what can be at best termed a mega-flop. I seriously do intend to be here more often, but so many things have been happening, and kept me so busy that this blog had to go down closer to the bottom of my list of priorities. But today, since I am up early and my daughter isn’t, I figured I would put this off no further and get it done.

So how have things been in blogosphere? I have to admit, that I have barely even been reading comments these past few months, barely reading my favorites on your blogs, and almost never commented on anybody’s blog either. A lot of things happened.. we cleaned up, re-painted our old house, and then started showing it to prospective renters (which I admit is more stressful than being seen at ponnu-paarthal). We eventually found one and then moved to a home closer to where I work, and got about getting it furnished. So you can imagine, control freak that I am, how crazy things must have been.

Before we moved to our new home, we did have a very traditional grihapravesam this time round and I was very satisfied with how well it went. Right after, the season began – week after week of festivals – pullayar chathurthi co-inciding with avani avittam, followed by krishna jayanthi, followed by navarathri – to the point that I am now almost relieved that there is a weekend where I can laze around a bit and not feel on Monday like the weekend hasn’t yet begun. Also, this year since there are no planned India trips, and we rarely do long holidays, I decided I would use up all my vacation on and around festivals and prepare for them at leisure.

So, starting with Pillayar chathurthi – this was literally a week after we moved in but I wanted to do something and we did a basic pooja and offered sundal and modhakam (or sweet kozhakattai). It did turn out really well. We then went over to b-i-l’s house where m-i-l and f-i-l were also staying and did an elaborate celebration of both pillayar chathurthi as well as avani avittam. My co-sis V made a really beautiful pillayar with rice flour (since clay ganesha’s are not available for sale). 

Avani avittam and Pillayar Chathurthi were quickly followed by Krishna Jayanthi. M-i-l and F-i-l were with us for this – so it was all the more fun. M-i-l prepared Seedai, Vella Seedai, Appam and Sooyam. Once again ate a lot of food. We also dressed up my daughter as Krishnar this time. After all the build-up I gave her about wearing “Umaachi” dress, I had put on a bunch of jewellery and taken off her shirt. She was disappointed to say the least. The Krishnar kaals (footprints) were a delight to do this time round – because we had hardwood and stone all the way to the pooja room. I didn’t have to make Krishnar magically fly past carpet etc.. like I’ve had to in the past.

V making the pillayar with rice flour

Pillayar Chathurthi

Rice flour pillayar

Avan avittam in the background

Ton of Food

Kutti Krishnar

Krishnar Naivedhyam

Krishnar Kaal

That ended Round 1 and to spare you the effort of keeping your attention on this post any longer.. Navarathri will have to be a separate post.. coming up soon.. hopefully.

The Sundal Plan

Its officially Navarathri season again, and it’s about time I start making the run for the best date and time that I should have people over. I have got to admit that even though only about 3 or 4 of my friends have their own golus, its still quite a scramble to try and fix up the right date and time so that the 3 or 4 can make it to my place. In a way it’s rather unfair on my part to expect them to show up. After all they are the ones that will have 40-50 people show up for golu and they have to travel an hour each way even to see my doorstep. Still worse is the fact, that my golu is going one level down this year – as in – I am moving my golu to the kutti room in our basement between the furnace and the treadmill. In fact, may be I should set it up on the treadmill. That will atleast give me a small use for the $700 and 5′ x 3′ floor space in our basement that it costs. I would have preferred it upstairs where there is more space and light, but with my dear little tornado zipping around the house, I dont think I will have much of a golu left 10 mins after I set it up. So off I go, to get started preparing for the pre-golu preparations.. Ciao