Kaanum Pongal

After Bhogi, Pongal and Mattu Pongal the next day is celebrated as Kaanum pongal, literally meaning 'seeing '. This day is used mostly for going to picnic spots and enjoying ourselves socializing. Thousands of people throng the Marina beach in Chennai on this day, these days.

Our native place would see people going to the banks of the River Cauvery to enjoy the day. Early in the morning the womenfolks would cook varieties of rice and side dishes to go with it, mostly some spicy chutneys and crunchy vadaams and pappads. Yumm! If at all the men would assist them, it was to cut some banana leaves from the backyard and make them into parcels for a picnic lunch. Loading the food into bamboo baskets, bullock carts would go to the banks of the river, the women riding in them. The children would skip behind the carts, the men having gone there long back.

My grandmother would lead the women to do the puja for Mother Cauvery and for the deity shrined in the small temple at the bank. The ancient steps leading to the river (built in the days of the long ago Chola kings) would be strewn with flowers and smeared with turmeric and kumkum. After this prayer was over, we would all have the picnic lunch and start upon various games. Men would be playing kabadi, wrestling and other boisterous games while the women would be having competitions on various indoor games like Pallanguzhi, Ezhu Kal etc., gossiping about relatives and neighbours even as their hands were handling the games! many marriage proposals would be finalized on this day as the youngsters concerned could be given the once-over by the elders in this informal setting. The children would be having a whale of a good time, with the whole mood of the crowd getting merrier as the time flew.

Girls who whose marriages were getting delayed would be made to sit in the centre of a ring of women dancing for 'kummipattu'-this was guaranteed remedy for getting their marriage fixed soon! After a siesta, the festivities would resume in the evening, the crowd disbursing as dusk fell. All our new dresses would be dirty and though our bodies were tired our hearts would be contented and happy with the day's pleasurable activities.

Our winter vacation would usually end by the year end and school would reopen around the 3rd of January. We are supposed to be present on the reopening day. But during some years, the temptation to extend the vacation to include Pongal festival would be very great. The state declares holidays for 3-4 days every year for this festival. Combined with Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes you might get 10 days of vacation if you take leave for one or two days. Our parents would decide that we could stay at our grandparents' for some more time and that we could return to our own home after Pongal celebrations were over. Despite the fact that we would face severe admonitions from the teachers for having been absent on reopening day, we would be enjoying the extended holidays. When your parents said that you could spend some more days -which were actually school working days- on vacation it was simply heaven! Of course, when we went back we had to copy all the class work done in our absence and work very hard indeed. But it was worth it!