How do you celebrate a cultural festival in a pandemic? You find a way
A bittersweet symphony: How we celebrated Ugadi, amid a global crisis
It's a March morning in Bengaluru, India.
Summer is just starting to set in, making its warm presence felt. As a light breeze gusts along, mango trees rustle, weaving a mellifluous tune that gently arouses the sleeping.
"Ugadi Habbada Subhashayagalu," I hear my mother whisper.
Amma's gentle voice has greeted my brother and me every morning of our childhood but this day is extra special. It is Ugadi — the start of the new year.
Lush green and waxy, plucked from a tree nearby the previous evening, mango leaves are stapled onto a thread to make a Torana, which now adorns our main door. The aroma of South Indian cooking percolates through every inch of the house.
My brother and I salivate at the thought of bale yele oota, akin to turkey dinner, consisting of saaru, majjige huli, two palyas, two kosambaris and of course, obbattu served on a bright, green, and pristinely clean banana leaf. We try to sneak into the kitchen to steal a few goodies but Amma is too quick.
"Not today," she says a little exasperatedly, tired of our oft-repeated shenanigans. "Today, we eat bevu bella before any other food."
She holds the bevu bella (neem flowers and jaggery) out in a bowl for each of us to pick. Trying to avoid the bitter bevu, we furtively reach out only toward the saccharine bella. But Amma is two steps ahead of us. Her eyes, as sharp as a hawk, catch us evading the bitter and only reaching for the sweet.
Giving us (both) bevu and bella in equal parts, she says, "You will appreciate sweetness only if you've tasted the bitter."
Devising 'bevu bella'
It is a March morning in St John's, Canada.
Winter is in full swing with the wrath of Sheila's Brush unleashed across the vast Atlantic Ocean. The cold winter wind whistles away as snow flutters horizontally past the windows making leaves — mango or otherwise — hard to find this time of the year.
It's never easy to swallow the bitter. But, much like neem, it is what ultimately strengthens us – inside out.
It is time for bevu bella, but neem and jaggery are a rarity in St John's.
Instead, using fresh lemon juice and brown sugar I devise "bevu bella" (or its cousin).
My little one sticks her hand out, licking the concoction clean off her tiny hands.
A curious nibble and a grimace finally lead to a lip-smacking approval and a stretched-out hand for more.
2020: The highs and lows
It isn't even April and this year and decade have been, if not anything else, action-packed. In the face of the world turning upside down, it's easy to forget that this year and decade have had positives too!
For instance, this year we celebrated Parasite's historic win at the Oscars. Cancer death rates have steadily plummeted. Politics appears to have taken a back seat in light of the impending global crisis.
I, personally, am grateful for Donald Trump's visit to India. His lack of effort to pronounce anything Indian gave Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Trevor Noah comedy gold that I enjoyed while writing this piece. (Google it. Trust me, it is worth watching Trump mispronounce chai).
But, for the most part, the decade and the year have been heavy on the heart and mind.
The Gregorian calendar began with a plane crash. We heard mumblings about COVID-19 making its presence felt in Wuhan and did close to nothing. Then, dumbfounded as we watched Australia burn, unprecedented amounts of snow heaped upon us.
St. John's dived into a state of emergency and just as we began to recover, the world came to a screeching halt. If not anything, 2020 sure knows how to make an appearance.
What goes unnoticed
Neem leaves and flowers form part of bevu bella. Its harsh taste isn't easy to forget as it lingers in the mouth, long after ingestion. While we are fixated on the bitter, what goes unnoticed is the work neem begins to do inside our body.
Turns out that neem has several medicinal properties, and traditionally has been used as an antibacterial and antiviral product.
Today, the bitter that surrounds us, brings an awareness of what has been missed and what needs to be strengthened. It's never easy to swallow the bitter. But, much like neem, it is what ultimately strengthens us — inside out.
