Maha-Sankrant (Yesterday and Today)

Yesterday and Today were kind-of clairvoyant, otherwise known as Makar-Sankrant (pronounced Muckker - Sun-cra-ant). Most of the India peninsula is entangled in a kind of frenzy. Start of a new year and start of festivals, of which the spree and quantum will now end with Santa Claus’s B’dday. Every possible region or caste or group have to celebrate these two days in their own special way - ranging in from the mellow palm-joining-puja to the weirdest antics of kite-flying festival in Amdavad (colloquially – Uttar-raa-yun).

Panjabis of North celebrate on a night previous – called Lodi (Low-uh-duh-e) -which basically means family and friends gathered around fire with supplies of popcorns, peanuts, and every kind of fatty preparations India can cook as sweet snacks. Everything is allowed - condition being that it is should be digestible, either by the tummy or the fire in the center. Larger the group larger is the circle, therefore, higher the bon-fire.

Within this frenzy, somewhere comes my village’s own custom too - in which, everyone is supposed to feed animals one lives around with. I would regularly see some peaceful cows, pitiable dogs, and birds and crows around. The preparation for these guys is a three layer arrangement - of puri as base, vada as next layer, and the uppermost of sweet-yogurt spread’d on top. Deadlicious it could have been but nobody came - because, them the dogs and cows were just well fed, and crows were too intelligent to get trapped by millions random kite strings of Uttar-raa-yun. They weren't around, for I noted the leftovers still on the roof top in the evening. Glad, the Good-Samaritans helpline bikes came within five minutes as promised, and took away the injured pigeon from my hands, earlier fallen onto my roofs top.