Festival of flowers is here! As always, I am very excited when we celebrate Bathukamma!! Being born and raised in the city I did not know how to make the flower tower as perfectly as most people in villages. I managed – mostly because celebrating is more important than how well we make the bathukamma.
Bathukamma is made with Gunaka Puvvu and Thangeda Puvvu. Since we can’t find as many flowers in this variety in the city, I also use any kind of flowers that are easily available locally. Along with bathukamma, we prepare Gauramma with turmeric powder and perform pooja before the singing and dancing starts.
This festival showcases the rich culture of Telangana. By that I mean, ladies turn up in full traditional attire, sing folk songs about goddess Gauri and dance late into the evening. Once they have danced and singed their hearts out, they take their bathukammas to the nearest lake to immersed it – seeking blessings of bathukamma. Bathukamma is one of the forms of goddess Gauri who is born from earth – we send her back with promise of inviting her next year. This is supposed to bring prosperity to the ladies and their families.
There is also prasadam that is given out at the end of the evening. Prasadam is made with Sugar, Poha and roasted chana dal. Small kids hang out with the ladies for the sake of prasadam.
We do have a lake nearby, but we have always created small pools in tubs and immersed our bathukamma at home. This has been our family tradition for as long as I can remember.
This is from the one time we have celebrated Bathukamma as part of Dussera Navratri celebrations in one of my previous organizations.
It is a nine-day festival. With city life and busy schedule, we were only able to celebrate it on the first and the last day. And all the pictures and videos are from the previous years, of course. Will be sharing this year’s pictures soon.
Happy Dussera to you and your families!
