Can the sound of a word reflect its meaning? Sure it can. This auditory figure of speech is known as 'onomatopoeia'. English is full of many such words. Let me share a Marathi word today. 'Dhundur'. What mental picture does it create? It echoes something misty, slightly vague, a little mysterious, right? Yes, that is the visual, the look of the early morning in the 'Dhundur mass' so aptly named.
Like the Chaturmas, this month, too, is not to be located in any formal calendar. This folk festival is 'celebrated', indeed, it is a wonderful celebration, after the Margashirsha Pournima till Sankranti. Basically it is rooted in the agrarian tradition.
Around this time, the farmer is comparatively free. So families celebrate this together time by lighting a bonfire with the useless remains of the earlier 'kharip' season, dry shoots, et al. They 'chitchat', to use an Indianism, sing and eat a special breakfast. Rest time, in brief.
My parents made it a happy time for us in the urban context, too. Papa used to bring home heaps of green peas (mutter). The 'harbhara pendi' (fresh from the farm) used to be literally a daily taste. 'Hurda', berries, sugarcane pieces, groundnut peas with jaggery used to be in abundance at home. Fresh sugarcane juice he used to bring while returning home in the evening. To it, Aai used to add lemon juice and grated ginger. Heavenly the drink used to be.
'Kakvi' (an offshoot of the process of jaggery making) with dollops of ghee used to be the standard sweet in the evening. Aai used to make lovely 'amboli's', while her 'bajra' khichdi with ghee and curd-groundnut chutney, lemon pickle and papad as side dishes used to create the divine "all is well with the world" mood. What happy days!
Pratima@I do try most of these at home. For all of us, every winter, I make matar usal (it never has the taste of the Aai special, however much I emulate her recipe) and gajar ka halwa. The win(n)ter, the 'dhundhur' feel!
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