Search This Blog

Happy Pongal!!!

Wish you all a very happy Pongal!! Pongal is one of the most important festivals of India, I have read in my school books.  During the school days I never had any interest to find out why is Pongal celebrated or for that matter any other festival.  You get a days off from school and thats the end of it.  Now I understand that its a thanksgiving day to the Sun God for all the good things he does to us.  Sun provides light, energy,  converts water into vapour and helps us in getting rains.  There can be 100's of other uses out of Sun in our life.  But, without Sun I cant imagine a life.  So lets all say thank you to Sun God on this day!!

Now for the last 2 years or so, Pongal also brings to us in Chennai an opportunity to witness the music, dance and lifestyle of village through the "Chennai Sangamam" festival.  The Chennai Sangamam is festival which has been started with very noble ideals and it has been a big success for the last 3 years.  The idea was born to conduct a festival of this type during a conversation between Ms Kanimozhi, daughter of Mr Karunanidhi and Fr. Jagath Gasper of Tamil Maiyam.  This year they have organised these programmes across 16 locations all over Chennai.  What you get to see is variety of folk arts and music performed by talented practioners of these arts from villages.  It gives them an opportunity to showcase their talent and their art to the outside world.  For the audience, it is a good opportunity to see things like Bommalattam, Poi Kal Kuthirai which is very rare otherwise.  Atleast the previous generation who came from towns and villages have some idea of our rural cultural heritage and its richness, imagine a young guy born and brought up in a city like Chennai.   As a part of this Chennai Sangamam, a food festival is also conducted where you get to taste various kinds of traditional food stuff.    Read more about Chennai Sangamam by visiting their website www.chennaisangamam.com.

Since it has been started by a political person,  its longevity depends on the next Government to a great extent.  Though this festival is not a political one, having known our political leaders, I guess this would be one of the first to get the axe from the Government if DMK loses power during the next elections.  I wish Chennai Sangamam continues in respective of who wins the next elections in Tamil Nadu.  

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great to know about the Chennai Sangamam through this blog. It has truly kindled the spirit of Chennai in me.