Walking Around Matunga

Shravan ---The festive season begins

Its that time of the year when the rains are lashing the maxim city of Mumbai. Roads and rail tracks generally getting flooded like every year .Even when BMC -the richest Municipality shouting from the roof tops that they had cleaned all the drains and fixed all the pot holes and made the city prepared for such fury of the rains. You can see the city coming to a screeching halt like what happened in the last week.

But its also that time of the year which starts the festive season all across India , with the start of the holy and auspicious  month of Shravan. The 5^th month in the Hindu Calendar and month with great festivals lined one after the other. This month is also significant from the point of view of fasts and abstention of non-veg food eating by some people. Though I am a foodie myself, and a non-veg lover.I have been keeping the vow of not eating non-veg food during this entire month and then carrying it over till the end of  the 10 days of Ganesh festival for last more than 30 years . And now ably supported in the non-veg food abstention by my sweet wife Kashmira (salute to her as it is much more difficult for her due to her family food preferences during her growing years before marriage) .

But there is logic behind these little little thing that we take for granted and practice as the Hindu way of life. The reason behind not eating non-veg and specifically fish during Shravan is to help in their breeding and growth so that their numbers don’t dwindle and the fishermen also don’t loose on their livelihood. Then aging there so many other small nuggets of wisdom in all the rituals we follow like the simple example of the bindi that every lady wears on their fore head is to keep the most sensitive spot an amalgamation of the most sensitive nerves ,just between the eyes and on the fore head  , calm and cool and to lower the blood pressure of the wearer. The silver spoon used to feed water or milk to the babies is used so because silver has the least chance of becoming un-hygenic . Ever thought why Savitri laid her husband Satyavan under the great Banyan (Vat) tree. Scientifically this tree has the highest ratio of Oxygen emission into the atmosphere….So Savitri was much smarter not only in wisdom (to make Yamaraj spare her husbands life ,she asked a boon from Yama –the god of death which he readily granted but realized he had to return Satyavan’s soul as Savitri had asked for a boon that she should bear a son from her departed husband. ) but also knew about this oxygen emitting trait of the Banyan tree. So some people who are ignorant and make fun of the rituals as being silly , should know there great science behind them.

For the same reason we celebrate the festival of Nagpanchami the 1^st festival in Shravan. As India has been primarily an Agricultural country , a lot of festivals are related to the farm , farming and cultivation activities. Like Pola (celebrating the cows and bulls that farmers own) , Gudi Padawa or others like Baisakhi , Bihu , Pongal or Onam which celebrate harvesting.

The Nag or the cobra helps the farmer rid the fields of the rodents and keeps their produce in healthy condition. So the snake is revered and prayed to . I still remember from my childhood, a garudi (snake charmer ) would visit the common building compound on Nagpanchami day. He would carry the cobra or the nag devta in his cane basket and stuffed in his cloth jhola ( today’s terminology would be a side bag). HE would take out the basket open it and show case the nag , then slowly blow his “been” a wind instrument on which the nag swayed. The women folk from the neighbouring buildings would descend and pray to the nag devta. Some would offer him milk in small katori some would shower him with flowers. Some money would be offered to the garudi as dakshina. And then he would leave for his vist to the next society. In school also the atmosphere would be festive ,sometimes teachers asking us to come in traditional dress instead of the uniforms. A break for the usual routine. Stories and posters would be put up in the common area or the class rooms depicting the festival of Nagpanchami.

A fond memory and sweet dish which makes this day even more special in our house hold is the making of a the “Patoli” . A special dish made by my loving Aai every year. A recipe handed down from generation to generation in our family. This sweet food item is made by steaming the coconut saran  ( a mix of jaggery , coconut , ghee and elaichi in the right proportion ) stuffed between wheat bater poured over Haldi (Turmeric) leaves. The product so formed has a divine smell and an awesome taste. When you eat this it just melts in your mouth leaving the sweetness and elaichis after taste.

A perfect sweetmeat which can give serious competition to any of the Bengali sweet that the neighborhood sweet shop chain can boast and hype about.

This marks the sweet beginning of the month long penance and the most auspicious period of Shravan

Happy Shravan to all ………….