I dont know why I have this bad habit of needing to write the story behind an event.🤔🙄
Saree is a kanchipuram one in pastel shade with silver work. Inter cultural marriages give an abundant opportunity to learn and enrich oneself. As a Telugu Brahman girl growing up loving the Varalakshmi Vratham and the decor and the goddess and how I could dress her up and how I would dress up (yup that's important), its my Barbie playtime equivalent (I never possessed a Barbie doll till date). The goddess looked more gorgeous than anyone, the kili pachchai (parrot green) or manjal (turmeric yellow) or arakku (reddish maroon) sarees and temple jewelry take your breath away. The look stays in your mind forever, like its in mine
. .. so when I adapted to bengali culture through marriage, because that's all my sweetest mil (Ma) wished of me, the one thing I asked her in return is to join me and celebrate Varalakshmi Vratham (and Vinayaka Chavithi). Its basically a religious ceremony perfomed by married women for well being of husband and family. So theoretically its all good. Ma agreed and she dint have much clue of how this daughterinlaw will turn out but was fully optimistic about my good intent (we live together so we can't pretend to be nice to each other, we must truly be nice to each other). However just few days ahead of my first Varalakshmi Vratham after marriage, Ma's aunt visited us from Kolkata and when she heard I would do this puja she got all excited. She was a Sai devotee and apparently many in their group perform.this puja at a central location and she told Ma to definitely encourage me doing this at home and also join me in doing it. Ma is a sport and my biggest supporter, so of course she was game. But to make it relatable to both of us I would do the telugu mantras first and ma reads the lokki panchali (bengali version) thereafter. That became a routine..ok, then comes food. I love boorelu, garelu pulihora etc but never made or learnt it during school and college days (grades were more important 🤔). At the same time after marriage I learnt bhog r kichudi, labra, tomato chutney as prepared in puja pandal from Ma..since then the bengali pujo menu has become staple menu forbour Varalakshmi Vratham.
Isnt it beautiful? How the hearts can come together and make something work wonders so long as you prioritize for it? End of day its about oneness. Language and Food and Culture are powerful tools to bring people and families together, one should never use them as weapons to create distances
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