Ugadi!!!

We had Ugadi yesterday... The New Year...

If I was at home.. I would be relishing all those wonderful moments...
Let me just list down all that...

No office (ah what a relief)
Get up early in the morning.. (well before it used to be 6 or so... then it relaxed to 7 or 7.30 and it is early on a holiday) But its a festival day so no cribbing...
Go down stairs, dad would give me a hot cup of coffee... i would say ... i want a little more milk... i dont want it so hot..I love to trouble dad that way.. I love him... where s the newspaper.. and then realize.. paper is on leave that day...
Mom says good.. now u'll finish coffee soon and go to bath :)
I take previous days supplementary pages and read thru.. mom becomes furious... [ I love to irritate her ;-) I love her :-)]
After a lot of yes and nos go for a hot oil shikakai bath.. (the auspicious enne neeru. is what we call)
By the time I am out.. Mom takes out my new dress ... it has that auspicous turmeric powder in the corners.. Wow the new dress is so crisp and ironed.. (i never iron my clothes when at home... u see am very pampered.. dad does that for me n bro, i do it if he is not there, I can never Iron as good as he does)
Now get ready for the Pooja... Oh ya in the meanwhile I do help mom little bit in the kitchen etc... The house is filled with Mango leaves on all the doors... House is filled with Agarbatti smell..
All of us do the Pooja.. then comes the part where dad is trying to give us beevu-bella (neem-jaggery) . This indicates that we need to have sweet n bitterness in our life equally. We say "Beevu-Bella tindu olle maatadi" [Eat neem-jaggery and speak good ].. This means come what may ... joyous moments or tough moments always be good to people... Now I wouldnt like any neem in the prasad I get... I mean how can u eat those neem flowers!!!
Well after this is the best part... Food :)
Yummy yummy food..

We do call up relatives and friends in the meanwhile to Wish them A happy and a prosperous new Year "Ugadi Shubhashayagallu"

The rest of the day goes in visiting relatives(and eat at everyone's place).. They coming home... And in case there are not many people.. we sit n talk... and watch TV.. (special programs on that day)
In the evening, go the temple... its so colourful there... then finally... off to sleep.

Now that I am here... this is what I did...

No holiday :(
Got up at 7.45... Head bath (shampoo)
Then ate bread and bread spread... Came to office...
In the evening left early... Wore the new dress..Went to temple..Came back home.. We had plans of making payasa (kheer) but it was 10 at night and we were too humgry to prepare anything special.. So ate our normal food.. and got back to work...

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