Check out 16 Return-To-Work Programs In India For Ambitious Women Like You!
These 6 beautiful Sankranti tips set the mood for a wonderful celebration with loved ones this week.
I have yet to find a festival that is celebrated with as much fervorand gaiety all over India as Sankranti. No matter which part of the country you are from, this is one occasion that gets everyone in a celebratory mood.It’s also one of those festivals that kids, no matter what age, love to celebrate.
With the focus on food and fun, the festival has always been a family favorite.
Sankranti is celebrated between 13th and 15th January on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti, as the Lohri of North India,Magha Bihu in Assam, Makar Sankranti in Bengal, Uttrayan in Gujarat, and Pongal in Tamil Nadu.This is a festival dedicated to the fire and the sun god as it celebrates the arrival of spring and is a harvest festival.
This also means that we look more closely at our homes and make that extra effort to prepare our abodes as we welcome the spring season.
Here are my Sankranti tips for a planning a sparkling celebration with your kids.
Since Sankranti heralds the arrival of spring the bulky sweaters and coats get packed away. North India emerges from a layer of wool and we all start to feel lighter. Since the sun is plentiful, it is the right time to sun the woolens before storing them away for another year. Get your kids involved and make it a game so they have fun while they sort.
While most people clean their kitchen daily, just the usual dusting, mopping and scrubbing is not enough.Insects, especially cockroaches love to feed on the fallen crumbs, or crawl on the utensilsovernight, spreading disease causing bacteria and germs. Consuming anything in these contaminated utensils will cause food poisoning. Therefore this festive season make sure you don’t just clean the kitchen but also keep the kitchen super safe from food poisoning by spraying LAL HIT in the nooks and corners of the kitchen. I comes with a unique deep reach nozzle that can kill even the hidden cockroaches. Make sure you say no to food poisoning spread by cockroaches!
The cool, crisp days make us feel so energetic after the gloomy cold. Post Diwali this will be our first major cleaning effort. An extra spurt of energy to ensure the corners, hard to reach places and neglected spots are all cleaned. It is the perfect way to welcome the sun god into our homes along with family and friends.
With a few days to Sankranti it is the right time for shopping. This also helps avoid the last minute rush.Til, Gud, Gajak, Popcorn, Peanuts, fresh greens and various traditional foods that we eat during the festivities can be bought too. Even if you are not religious, this is a fun way to stay in touch with tradition and get munching together as a family as you enjoy each other’s company.
Each part of our country celebrates this festival differently even though we all welcome the spring, be it with kite flying, burning a bonfire or worshiping the Sun God. A lot of things are needed and it is best if we arrange all the items in advance so there is no last minute searching for things. A clear list of all the things needed is the best way to shop and set them up in our homes.
If you are not going in for a traditional celebration, pick any one aspect you love, be it flying kites or making pongal, and perhaps you could even get together with a few friends to enjoy the ritual together.
Each festival gives us a chance to celebrate and cherish our customs and traditions. Sankranti too is an opportunity to teach our children and what better way than to show them how it’s done. They will gladly volunteer to fill the colors of a rangoli and put up the garlands of flowers.There is no better way to nurture the bonds of love than to spend quality time together. Festivals are the perfect time and reason for spreading some love.
I wish you happy and healthy days ahead as we celebrate Sankranti. Wewelcome the spring with these lines in Punjabi:
“Ayi Rut Basant Di, TeMooli Chadiya Bheen,
Dhoopa Pargat Hoiya, Te Ghar Nu Chaliya Seen.”
The spring season/basant has arrived, as radish plants are blooming, the sun has made an appearance as the cold is going back to its home.
Image of kites flying via Shutterstock
Post supported by Godrej Hit #SayNoToFoodPoisoning. Click here to follow the story of a roach and its hidden life in your kitchen.
Inderpreet writes for her love of writing, edits manuscripts and reads endlessly. An authors' editor with a decade of experience, she provides manuscript critique, linguistic editing, substantive editing and developmental editing for fiction and nonfiction. read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, individual posts do not necessarily represent the platform's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
Neena was the sole caregiver of Amma and though one would think that Amma was dependent on her, Neena felt otherwise.
Neena inhaled the aroma that emanated from the pan and took a deep breath. The aroma of cumin interspersed with butter transported her back to the modest kitchen in her native village. She could picture her father standing in the kitchen wearing his white crisp kurta as he made delectable concoctions for his only daughter.
Neena grew up in a home where both her parents worked together in tandem to keep the house up and running. She had a blissful childhood in her modest two-room house. The house was small but every nook and cranny gave her memories of a lifetime. Neena’s young heart imagined that her life would follow the same cheerful course. But how wrong she was!
When she was sixteen, the catastrophic clutches of destiny snatched away her parents. They passed away in a road accident and Neena was devastated. Relatives thronged her now gloomy house and soon it was decided that she should be married off.
Women today don’t want to be in a partnership that complicates their lives further. They need an equal partner with whom they can figure out life as a team, playing by each other’s strengths.
We all are familiar with that one annoying aunty who is more interested in our marital status than in the dessert counter at a wedding. But these aunties have somehow become obsolete now. Now they are replaced by men we have in our lives. Friends, family, and even work colleagues. It’s the men who are worried about why we are not saying yes to one among their clans. What is wrong with us? Aren’t we scared of dying alone? Like them?
A recent interaction with a guy friend of mine turned sour when he lectured me about how I would regret not getting married at the right time. He lectured that every event in our lives needs to be completed within a certain timeframe set by society else we are doomed. I wasn’t angry. I was just disappointed to realize that annoying aunties are rapidly doubling in our society. And they don’t just appear at weddings or family functions anymore. They are everywhere. They are the real pandemic.
Let’s examine this a little closer.
Please enter your email address