I dig further and further into the soil and arrive at the base of the turmeric root. I am thrilled when I scoop it up and lay it out on the tray – the smell of fresh turmeric mixed with red damp soil is amazing, and takes me right back to my childhood and the tradition of ‘manjal keethal’. Aunts, young cousins, neigbourhood maamis and their daughters would drop in during the day with their own tiny piece of raw turmeric, and my mother would rub the tuber on their foreheads while chanting some blessings. Knowing the times, I am sure the blessings for the married with children to remain sumangalis, the married women yet to have children were probably blessed with a hundred sons, and the unmarried youngsters would have been blessed so they could get married soon. I don't know if turmeric was grown easily and harvested around the same time in Calcutta, but it is more likely that the turmeric was freshly brought in from Tamil Nadu.
In Calcutta, in the area around Lake Market where most South Indians lived, and where even the South Indians from Alipore came shopping, Pongal was celebrated as traditionally as possible. Fresh turmeric, turmeric leaves, sugar cane – suddenly all these Pongal essentials would be available in the stores. I am sure they did not come cheap, but there really was no option – we just had to have these items ready. The leaves had to be tied around the pot in which milk would be boiled on Sankaranti morning. On the day, we would all gather around the stove to say Pongal o Pongal while the milk boiled up to the top and then overflowed a bit (often drenching one part of the gas burner, making the burner quite ineffective for a few days). We would also watch as the flames came dangerously close to the leaves and the smell of roasted turmeric leaves was part of the olfactory experience I associated with Pongal for a long time.
After spending a major part of my life in North and East India, I am now living in the South and Pongal traditions are finally making sense to me. Turmeric is harvested around Sankaranti, as are sweet potatoes, and sugar cane, and rice. The Chakkara Pongal can be made with freshly harvested rice and pulses and sweetened with freshly made jaggery. I can truly appreciate why Pongal is a Harvest Festival.
Did we celebrate Pongal and other Tamilian festivals in Kolkata with more rigidity than warranted? Did our parents, and we later as parents, feel like we were losing out on our connection to our roots if we did not maintain the same rituals and traditions.
