Ougadi

This festival celebrated  today by the telegus in Mauritius and elsewhere. These festivities give us Mauritians the opportunity of widening our knowledge on the communities living in our culturally rich countries.

Is it a wonderful chance to know more about telegus? Their cultural and linguistic differences?

Ougadi or the New Year is celebrated in the month of March. The birthday of Ganesha, the God of wisdom and remover of all obstacles is celebrated as Ganesh Chaturthi.

Unlike many religious celebrations, Ougadi is not celebrated on the streets. The Telugu New Year remains very traditional with people having lunch or dinner with their relatives and cultural shows organised. Prayers and cakes distributed to relatives, friends and neighbours are also part of the festival celebrated last Saturday.

The day starts with a purifying wash – the mangala snaanam – before the sun on Saturday morning. Then, after putting on chandrika oil and massaging themselves with a paste made with cereals, the Telugus are ready to start the celebration of the creation of the Universe by the God Brahmâ.

The patchadi – a mixture of green mangoes, tamarind, lilac flowers, chilli and salt – is prepared and offered to God in a special prayer to ask for his protection. They then go to the temple where they are read the panchagam (Telegu almanac). This special day is also a time for decorative activities like the mugga, which are beautiful and colourful designs made with different seeds and spices.

I am more interested to learn about the culinary differences of the telegu.

The cuisine of Andhra Pradesh is reputedly the spiciest and the most delicious of all There are many variations to the Andhra cuisine depending on caste, geographical regions, traditions etc. are particularly popular in Andhra Pradesh and many varieties of pickles and chutneys are unique to the State. Chutneys are made from practically every vegetable including (eggplant), and (The mango pickle is probably the best known of the Andhra pickles.

Rice is the staple food and is used in a wide variety of ways. Typically, rice is either boiled and eaten with curry, or made into a batter for use in a crepe -like dish called attu – made of a mixture of this batter and mung beans) or Dosa .

Hyderabad, the capital city of the state of Andra Pradesh, I was told by a very good friend whose father was the editor of an English newspaper during the pre-partition and post-partition years in Hyderabad, is the limit city where the Moguls were stopped in their invasion.