Thiruvaadhirai

Its that time of the year where we get to eat kootu and kali. Thiruvaadhirai or Aarudhra Darisanam celebrated in the full moon night in the month of Margazhi and its a day decidated to Lord Shiva (his star being Aathirai and hence the name Thiruvaadhirai). I guess this festival is mainly observed by the tamil speaking world. The most important Aarudhra Darshan takes place in the Chidambaram Shiva temple where the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva is enacted.Thousands throng the temple for this special darshan and catch a glimpse of Lord Nataraja .


Though this festival carries so much history and importance, all my memories regarding Thiruvaadhirai are centered around eating cups and cups of the traditional kootu :-). Mom used to make the kali and kootu early in the morning and i used to gobble up spoonfuls as and when i entered the kitchen. I just loved the kootu so much, its a special dish made out of many vegetables only that the number of the vegetables inside the kootu should be an odd number (!!!). So this being my first Thiruvadhirai after marriage, we decided to experiment with the kali and kootu whatever may be the case. So after a lot of phone calls to India, the recipe of the two were bang on in my hands. "Looks pretty simple and straightforward" i thought. So then y not invite our friends for lunch???? Hari also thought it was a great idea and we invited our friends over to have the thiruvaadhirai kali kootu with us.

The day dawned,and i rose quickly and hit the kitchen. Ok, now i started with the kali and hari started cutting the vegetables for the kootu. After the basic stuff, i stuffed the kali inside the pressure cooker and i was brimming with pride 'Well done girl...so far things are going in the right direction'. So, after the pressure cooker finished dancing and spinning its way to glory i opened the lid. To my dismay, the kali was uncooked and still in the same shape as i had put it earlier :-(. My my.....this is the starting point of another great fiasco. 'Ok ok' ,i told myself "Don't get disheartened, it happens" and again i repeated the procedure. Praying fervently to god that i should turn out good, i looked at the kali and it still didnt look satisfactory. Oh god, forget it, and i deployed my attention towards the other dishes. And after a long battle with vadai i finished the dishes and looked at the kali with a vengeance. Finally i managed to make up the kali and couldn't help but pity our friends who were totally unaware of the fate which was awaiting them!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone arrived and we started by playing a round of cards. Anyways its a mess, sooner it gets over the better ,i thought and cleared my throat and said meekly 'Why don't we start our lunch, guyz'. I made a sincere attempt to warn them..'Hey look, the kali...." and then came my friends voice..."oi this exactly how a traditional kali should look like" .Oh really!!!!! Surprisingly ,everyone liked it or atleast they pretended to!!!!! . Wowwwwwwww.. "such gracious and kind hearted souls"....it tasted good and i had lunch in a far better mood. After that we had a complete blast, playing , chatting , pulling each others legs...after a looong time we had such unlimited fun and frolicking:-). We parted with promises of another happy get together very soon.

So there ended our thiruvaadhirai festivities . It was good day after all, a day to remember (no no, not for the kali part) and will be etched in my memory for a long time to come :-).