Ugadi Pachadi

We Indians absolutely love our food- just ask any of us what we do for a given festival and we most likely will tell you the specifics of what we eat on that day! It is only after you pry that the other significance(s) of the said festival comes out. Sweet pongal for Makar Sankranti (harvest festival), steamed rice flour modaks with sweet coconut stuffing for Ganesh Chaturthi (the elephant God birthday), any and every edible dish overloaded with sugar for Diwali (the festival of lights), for instance. The festival we are celebrating today, the Telugu New Year's Day- Ugadi, is no exception for its food association. It is probably one of the few festivals where the specialty food is not one overloaded with sugar. This dish, Ugadi Pachadi, has more of a philosophical significance- with its six tastes (Tangy: tamarind, Bitter-sweet: raw Mango, Bitter: neem flowers, Sweet: jaggery, fresh sugar cane and banana, Salty:Salt, Spicy:Jalapenos) representing the myriad facets of life. Of course, we all know what kind of life we want to experience more than the others so invariably the Pachadi ends up tasting more like one than the other five of those tastes.

For me, Ugadi pachadi is much more than the tradition or its philosophical take on life. Fourteen years ago, that Ugadi day was when Bhaskar decided to go ahead and call the number that he was sitting on for days. What would a Telugu boy and girl, together on the phone for the first time ever, talk about on Ugadi day? Ugadi pachadi, of course! Ugadi pachadi, for us, turned out to be the ice breaker, one that will stay forever as a sweet memory.

Happy Ugadi!