The Kite Festival (Uttarayan)

I went one day in Surat, a city in the state of Gujirat to witness the Kite Flying Fetival known as Uttarayan.

The festival marks the days in the Hindu calendar when winter begins turning to summer, known as Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan. 

 

Kites of all shapes and sizes are flown, and the main competition is to battle nearby kite-flyers to cut their strings and bring down their kites. 

Competition is so strong and thrilling that some strings for the kite are coated with a mixture of glue and pieces of glass to cut more effectively over people's string ! 

The atmosphere is wonderfully festive, as whole families gather on the rooftop, special foods like laddoos , undhyu or surati jamun are prepared for eating over the course of the day, and friends and neighbors visit each other for group kite-flying fun.

  Here is a picture from the city of Ahmedabad which is the capital of the festival in Gujirat. It is the the most famous place and it attracts a lot of foreigners.

 

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South India

I went for a bus trip in south india for 10 days with almost all the exchange students of Mumbai. It was outstanding to see the tea gardens in kerala, the lake and backwaters in Allepey, the burning spicy chillies in Thekkady, the huge Madurai temple with its elephants and amazing crowd (my favorite part of the trip), the beach in pondicherry, everything was new to me ! I have many memories from the trip and enough pictures to remember it all my life.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 




 

 

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Ganpati Festival

Ganesh Chaturthi is a religious festival observed by Hindus to celebrate the birth of Lord Ganesha (the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati).

 In 2015, it was observed on Thursday, 17th September. Ganpati festival is celebrated with much fanfare and devotion across the country. Lord Ganpati is known to help in auspicious beginnings and remove all obstacles from one’s path.

It was ten loud, excited, and tiring days of Pujas, processions, endless drum-slamming, dense and sugary sweets, and heavily decorated Ganesh idols everywhere you walked. 

The festival actually didn't start on the 17th but at least one month before : the idols were built and given shape in huge huts made of bamboo. 

The Ganesh idols made of clay by skilled artisans are beautifully decorated and come in a variety of bright and pretty colours like pink, orange, yellow, gold, green and blue.

Groups of men (and occasionally some women) carried huge drums, tied around their waists, and played with force and enthusiasm every single night of those 11 days !

The celebration goes on for ten days and on the 11th day, the festival comes to an end and the statue is taken for immersion. This procession is one of the most colourful and lively things I will ever saw and experienced. 

There are people dancing and singing, all enveloped in colourful gulaal (colour powders), leading the procession with much fanfare. The idols are then immersed in a river, sea or any water body to signify his journey while everybody shouts “Ganpati Bappa Morya” (stay with us until the next year/next year come early). 

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