Dubai: The Telugu community in the UAE celebrated their new year on March 29. The Hevalambi Ugadi festival was celebrated with fervour, and devotees thronged the temples in Bur Dubai from early morning. Ugadi is also the new year of Kannadigas, or Kannada-speaking people, from the state of Karnataka.
As part of the celebrations, expatriates from the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana decorated their houses with fresh mango leaves, marigolds and chrysanthemums, and prepared the traditional Ugadi pachadi, a concoction comprising different tastes — bitter (neem flower), sweet (jaggery), salt, hot (green chillies) and sour (raw mango and tamarind) and fresh coconut — symbolising the fact that life is a mixture of different experiences that should be accepted with equanimity in the year ahead.
Another traditional dish that is made and served to friends and exchanged with neighbours is poli or holige in Kannada, which is a flat Indian bread stuffed with a mixture of cooked jaggery and yellow lentils, flavoured with cardamom and ghee (clarified butter).
About 100 people from both these communities gathered at a private villa in Arabian Ranches to usher in the new year. They exchanged greetings and wishes for a happy and prosperous year ahead.
Lakshmi and Shekar Reddy, who hosted the Ugadi get-together, arranged Panchanga Sravanam, an integral part of Ugadi celebrations. The ceremony was conducted by Vakkantham Chandramouli, a renowned scholar from Hyderabad, the capital city of Telangana.
Panchangam is an Indian almanac of key dates of festivals and also contains predictions based on individuals’ zodiac signs.
Reddy, a businessman, said it gave him immense pleasure celebrating Ugadi amid his friends and relatives who have come all the way from Bengaluru. His wife, Lakshmi Reddy, echoed his sentiments, and said it “was the best Ugadi” she had ever celebrated.
H.H. Belagur, a Kannadiga, said: “We have spent a memorable Ugadi after gap of almost two decades. The importance of Ugadi will not complete without Panchang Sharavan [Panchanga Sravanam]. We are fortunate to listen to Chandramouli.”
Chandramouli said while many people back home are forgetting traditions and festivals, he was impressed to see so many people gather to celebrate Ugadi with a dinner comprising Telugu cuisine.
