"யாதும் ஊரே, யாவரும் கேளிர்" is Tamil verse written by Kaniyan Pungundranar in his poem Purananuru. It is pronounced as “Yaadhum oore yaavarum kelir” which in English means that "To us all towns are one, all men our kin"(Every village is my village and every person is from my relative)
India is country of diverse cultural practices. Each state follows different cultures and as a result has separate New year festivals. I am Jency from Pondicherry. It is a Union Territory in India, which follows the Tamil Culture. April 14 is celebrated as Puthandu (Tamil New Year) in Tamil Nadu, India. It is not only the New Year for Tamil Nadu but also New Year for many other states. For example – The state Kerala celebrates this new year in the name of Vishu, Karnataka, Telengana and Andhra Pradhesh celebrates it by the name Ugadi.
On this day we cook a variety of food items and do pooja to God with colourful flowers and lighting the lamps. After doing the pooja everyone in the family sits on the floor together and eat the foods on Banana leaves instead of plates. We also visit temples. This a festival mainly celebrated by Hindus of Tamil Nadu. Though I follow Christianity we are bounded as one family by Culture. So, in our family we cook food and eat together using Banana leaves as plates.
The basic purpose of this student exchange program is to get to know people from different countries who follow different cultures. So, I decided to celebrate this day by inviting my buddy, Tereza, for lunch. Along with me there were two other Indians, Sabari and Surya. Sabari is also from Pondicherry and Surya is from Kerala. The three of us prepared a simple Indian food for Tereza. The food menu was Kesari which is a sweet, Rice, Sambar, Potato Poriyal(sides), Pickles, Yoghurts and some chips.
Myself and Surya wore Saree and Sabari wore Veshti(Dhoti) which are the traditional attires of India. I bought my buddy a Shalwar Kameez (Indian Traditional dress) and I asked her to wear it for Lunch with us. She was so excited to celebrate the festival with us and was looking pretty as well. We took some photos near the Campus.
Later we came to my room to have lunch. I wanted it be in the most traditional way as possible. In Tamil Nadu we sit down with our legs crossed (Sukhasana) and eat with our hands. Likewise, we all sat down and ate with our hands. We didn’t get Banana leaves so we ate in Plates. We taught Tereza how to mix sambhar and rice together and also how to eat rice with hands. She learnt very quickly. We had a discussion about the different cultures of India, the traditions which were followed and also about the different varieties of foods. Tereza liked all the foods and ate it fully even if it was a bit spicy for her. Our stomachs as well as our hearts were content. This was the real intercultural experience I would say.
Apart from knowledge and culture the one thing travels with us till the end is our memories. This day will be etched in my heart and mind forever.
0 Yorumlar