Sankranti in Bangalore in our growing up years meant sugarcane, yellu (mixture of gram dhal, groundnuts, jaggery, til, copra, etc.), coloured sugar candy in different shapes (I loved the bright pink ones, though all colours tasted the same) and kite flying. One important ritual was plucking fresh mango leaves from our tree and fixing them on a rope with coconut sticks to replace the dried-up one above our main door.
The trees in our compound would catch many stray kites and we’d have to climb to get them down, and wind the manja that would be dangling everywhere. We’d sometimes try to make our own kites with newspaper and broomsticks.
I love the different greetings being shared in WhatsApp groups. Some are similar, yet different. What struck me was that not a single one I saw had reference to Covid, though this is the first Sankranti in Covid times.
Happy Sankranti to all!
arathimy 