Gudi Padva, A Harvest Festival (Really? Not Just a Holiday)

A fun play on the difference between festival celebration in a metro and a village in India!

Introducing the Characters

The Corporate Yuppie

The Villager

The ‘slightly cynical’ Narrator

Prologue

I stay in an urban metropolis, decked with malls, metros and metrosexuals. I celebrate every festival with SMS greetings. 

 

I still work on the land to put bread on the table. I am deeply rooted in tradition and celebrate every festival with religious fervour.  

 

But is that really true? I see the city dwellers celebrating every festival from Diwali to Eid and Christmas with equal enthusiasm and villagers doing the same thing. But this is where the similarity ends. The latter actually know what they are doing while the citywallahs need to go check a few websites before planning the celebrations.

Let’s put this notion to test; the Hindu Lunar Calendar says the Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the first day of the Hindu New Year is close and all of Maharashtra and Konkan will be celebrating the event as Gudi Padva on 11^th April. Let’s take a look at the conversation between the two fellas (with our narrator pitching in from time to time)...you might be in for a few surprises! (Or not).

The Play

I call it Gudi Padva and know that it falls on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada.

 

  Same pinch! I too call it Gudi Padva. Oops, but I just know the festival date is April 11^th (HR said so) and that it’s a Thursday and it means a mid-week holiday. Let me make a mental note to check what Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is on the Internet.

 

 I raise the Gudi (an earthen pot) on a bamboo pole outside their homes, adorn it with festive green or yellow silk, decorate it with a toran (a string of mango leaves) and marigold flowers and Brahmadhwaj.

I wake up early to make rangoli, offer prayers to the supreme creator – Brahma.

I make Srikhand and Puran Poli for family and friends.

I will be all set to start new endeavours on Gudi Padva as this is one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar.

Yippe! I get to sleep late for there is no office the next day. I use the holiday to pay bills with credit cards, worry about credit card bills, hunt for a new maid, hunt for a plumber, go look at a replacement bean bag, brunch with friends, sleep more. Some of us do stick out an earthen pot from one window of their high rise apartment and cover it with a yellow silk.

Sorry can’t wake up that early in morning so tweak the festival rituals a bit.

For Gudi Padva recipes, I got to check food blogs and instruct cook to make pasta for lunch or how about a traditional lunch but will the maid know to cook it. Let me phone mummy and see if she can help me through the cooking. Though I will cook only the easiest one.

I got to clear work-related backlog, check Facebook, check twitter, copy and forward a ‘Happy Gudi Padwa’ message to family and friends.

I even know the legends behind Gudi Padva celebrations; check out these really interesting ones:

Some Maharashtrians celebrate Gudi Padva as a symbol of the victory of Shalivahana Kings over the intruding Sakas (Scythians in Greek accounts).

Some people in Maharashtra believe Gudi Padva was first celebrated as a commemoration of the great Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s victory over Mughals.

Gudi Padva is essentially a harvest festival that signifies the beginning of Spring or Vasant.

According to the Brahma Purana, this is the day when Lord Brahma re-created the world after the great deluge and ‘time’ started from this point forward.

Many legends state that the festival is a celebration of the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after the battle of Lanka.

Hmm…my busy, nomadic life and my up-rootedness leaves me with little time or opportunity to celebrate festivals that make us quintessentially Indian (or Bhartiya). 

Epilogue

So, how about going the distance this year and celebrating Gudi Pad­va with the bells and whistles, the rituals and double the Srikhand? It could be your chance at getting a new start in the Hindu New Year. Do check the Internet before you start though! :)