Til you like it

North, East, West or South, India celebrates Makar Sankranti, Pongal or Lohri with equal fervour. Vidhi Bhargava nibbles...

Last week, Ratna Prabha Khare was particularly busy. The Maharashtrian homemaker was roasting sesame seeds and pounding jaggery. Her home filled with the heady aroma of

HT Image

til

and

gud

as she stirred the bubbling mixture, then rolled it into perfectly shaped

ladoos

.

The little mountain of

ladoos

stirred up plenty of excitement in the Khare household as the family waited impatiently for Makar Sankranti to bite into them.

The harvest festival is a time for new beginnings. In Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka it is celebrated as Makar Sankranti, in Gujarat and Rajasthan it goes by the name of Uttarayan, Punjab hosts the Lohri, Assam brings in Bihu and Tamil Nadu prides in its Pongal. What ties them all together is the food.

Pile up the

ladoos

Given the cold season and the new crops, foods that leave you with a feeling of warmth take over the platter.

The smell of fresh jaggery permeates the air while freshly harvested sesame is used not just to make

but also for bathing, massage,

havan

,

tarpan

(the Sun God is offered sesame and water) and given away as charity.

In Maharashtrian households, til gud along with dried betel leaves are offered to visiting friends and family with the saying,

Til gud khya god god bola

(eat til gud and speak sweet words).

At Anu Padhiar's house in Borivali, Uttarayan is time for family and food. While the men and the kids in this Gujarati household make their way to the terrace, armed with kites and maanja, the ladies gather in the kitchen to prepare

undhiyu

(seasonal vegetable mix),

mamara

(puffed rice)

ladoos

and

til gud.

Pandhiar makes til

ladoos

with a coin in the center. They are distributed generously among the along with stalks of juicy sugarcane.

Dal baati khao

Uttarayan for the Khandelwal family from Rajasthan is a time for charity. Malad-based businesswoman, Bhawna Khandelwal, prepares the

daal-batti-churma

and

til ladoos

for the family meal herself.

Gajak

, a flaky sesame, jaggery and sugar treat, is bought mostly from Jaipur and distributed among family members and the poor, along with presents.

Til ladoos

and

khichdi

dominate Makar Sankranti festivities in Manjula Pathak's family. Pathak who's from Uttar Pradesh, breaks her day-long fast with a hot meal of multigrain

moong daal khichdi

served with generous dollops of ghee.

Besan, atta

and of course,

til ladoos

are made and gifted to the elders of the family.

Bonfire bonanza

This year Rachna Khanna's newborn nephew will celebrate his first Lohri. Fifty boisterous Punjabis will crowd into her Vashi home and bring in the festival with song, dance, thick, soaked-in-ghee

makke di rotis

and rich green

sarson ka saag

served with ladlefuls of creamy homemade butter.

In the evening, piles of

rewris

(sugared til candy),

gajak

and popcorn will be passed around a bonfire as friends and families dance to the tunes of the traditional

dhol

.

At Cauveri Parijat's home in Thane, Bihu is a subdued affair when you compare it to the celebrations in her hometown Guwahati. Her mother makes the customary rice pancakes, pitha, with jaggery, sesame and coconut filling.

She misses out on the

sunga pitha

(rice pancakes steamed in bamboo stems) and the

ladoos

made with coconut,

til, kurmura

and

poha.

The

rangolis

outside the Vishwanathans house is indicative of the Pongal festival. Padma Viswanathan wakes up early to prepare the chakra pongal, a traditional Tamil dish of rice, moong daal and sugar.

It is placed eastwards, decorated with lime, turmeric and kumkum and first offered to the Sun God. The other Pongal speciality is

medu vadai

(balls of rice flour).