Urban fairs with rural flair

It’s all about going rustic this harvest festival. While everyone who can take off head for their native village for Pongal, others are busy recreating village festivities in the city, through food fests and carnivals.
To make sure that city dwellers do not miss out on the traditional delicacies prepared during the festival, several restaurants are offering ‘Gramathu Virundus’ or village feasts.Visitors can enjoy traditional dishes such as kambu pongal (pearl millet pongal), banana stem soup, snake gourd bajji, mango pachadi and the traditional nine-vegetable pachadi at a special village food festival being held from January 15 to 17 at the Mahamudra restaurant in Mylapore.
“Many people who live in the city are not familiar with these dishes or have forgotten how to prepare them. Traditional food is also supposed to be more nutritious and there is a lot of demand,” says C C Mohan, manager, Mahamudra. “A lot of our customers bring their children along as they want them to taste these dishes,” he adds.
Organisers at the ‘Pongal sandhai’ (carnival) being organised in Royapettah are also hoping to attract children to the fair with a rural flavour. At the four-day fest, children will be able to see village artists perform fire acrobatics and also witness folk arts like Tudumbattam. “Most youngsters now do not get to experience Pongal festivities and celebrate it like their parents or grandparents used to. We wanted to recreate a village sandhai in the city to provide the rural experience to people in the city,” says Prem Antony, director of the festival. “We have also set up stalls that sell drinks like ‘Jigarthanda’, which is popular in Madurai,” he says.
For the last few years, DakshinaChitra, a traditional arts village on the East Coast Road, has also been recreating a mock village to celebrate Pongal. Organisers say that it is a sense of nostalgia that attracts people to these places. “DakshinaChitra is situated near large, modernday amusement parks. However, most city dwellers choose to come here as they are tired of the urban way of life and are looking for new experiences,” says a staff member.
Along with celebrating the festival in the mock village with traditional earthern pots and offering puja to cows, folk performances such as ‘Poikkal kuthiraiattam’, ‘Mayilattam’ and ‘Karagattam’ will be held till January 16. “We also attract a lot of foreigners who are interested in experiencing the traditional Indian way of life,” she adds.
For the benefit of foreign tourists, the state tourism department is also organising special trips to the village of Kadambadi near Mamallapuram on Sunday. Apart from tasting pongal cooked in the traditional way on village streets, tourists will also be able to take part in activities such as pot-breaking competitions. “They will be welcomed to the village with garlands and the festivities will end with a bullock cart ride around the village,” says an official at the department of tourism.