Sri Rama Navami

We celebrate Rama Navami on the 9th day from Ugadi.

"Sri Rama Rama Rameti, Rame Rame Manorame
Sahasranama Tattulyam, Rama Nama Varanane." - Chanting the name of 'Sri Rama' is equal to reciting the entire thousand names of Lord Vishnu.

The highlights of this festival are Paanakam and Vadapappu, the favourites of Lord Rama.

Here is the simple recipe to make Paanakam -

Ingredients:

Water - 1 cup

Jaggery - 2-3 tsps

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Cardamom seeds - 1 (powdered)

• Dissolve jaggery in water, add pepper powder and cardamom powder.
• Filter to remove the large particulates.

Vadapappu is nothing but split Moong dal soaked in water for 4-5 hours.

This festival takes me back to my childhood days in my village, when Sita-Rama kalyanam was performed at the village's Rama temple. And I remember my grand mother giving me the prasadam even before it was offered to God :)). The kalyanam used to involve the whole village. The ladies used to prepare prasadam on the back side of the temple, while the men made arrangements for the pooja and the community lunch. We kids used to have a good time running around the mandapam. In the night, there used to be a movie screening in the center of the village (open air theatre) using the old film projectors, where somebody has to change the reel everytime. Good old days!

Happy Ugadi

విరోధి నామ సంవత్సర ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు.

Ugadi marks the beginning of Telugu new year. It is believed that the creator Lord Brahma started creation on this day - Chaitra suddha padhyami or the Ugadi day.
Traditionally, we celebrate Ugadi by listening to panchangam or yearly calendar ("Panchangasravanam" - predictions for the year) and having the Ugadi pachhadi, which includes all the 6 tastes(Shadruchulu - bitter, tangy, sweet, salt, sour, and hot).

Ingredients:

Neem flowers - as required ( thanks to the Indian grocery store for carrying the dried Neem flowers. If you don't have these, use anything with bitter in taste like Bitter goard/Karela).

Tamarind - Lemon size

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Jaggery - as required

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Raw Mango - 1/4 cup (small pieces)

• Soak tamarind in water for 1 hour. Extract the tamarind juice.
• Add jaggery, salt, chilli powder, Mango pieces to the tamarind juice.
• Add Neem flowers to this juice. And serve with all the ingredients.