Unforgettable Gudhipadwa

We all just celebrated Gudhipadwa. But I remember the celebration of Gudhipadwa when I was in Hyderabad. I was working with E TV Marathi. For more than 18 months I was there. During this period we got opportunity to celebrate Gudhipadwa of Maharashtra and Ugadi of Andhra Prudish at a time.

When you are in Maharashtra you never get feel of Marathi culture or festivals of Maharashtra. But when you are outside Maharashtra you must remember these things. As we were missing all the Marathi festivals, we decided to celebrate Gudhipadwa in Marathi style. Myself, Rajendra Hunje, Shriranga Khare and Sachin Fulpagare were living in one house on rent.

We all had night shift during that week. Night shift of E TV was from 12 in midnight to 8 am. When we finished our shift and came back to home then time was around 9.15. After that we started to wash our home. Our home had two rooms, one hall and one kitchen. We washed all the rooms using detergent and phenyl. After that we all took bath and gone to Sai Baba Mandir just near to our home.

We decided to set up a Gudhi on our home. But problem was this tradition was not famous in AP and Marathi peoples were very less in our area. So we did not get required material to set up Gudhi. Then we tried for things in Sai baba mandir. There we got Saffron colour silk cloth and Neem leaves. Then we found out one long stick. From that saffron silk cloth we prepared Gudhi and put that on our home. Everyone including owner of our home was curious about all this things. They were inquiring about all this traditions and why we are doing this. We feel very satisfied and proud when the entire things gone properly.

But it was not the end of our celebration. After that we started to prepare food for lunch. We prepared puris; mix vegetable, masala rice, chatni and Koshimbir also. We bought Jilebi from one Marathi vendor and then enjoyed all Maharashtrian food in lunch. Our neighbors Ketaki Joshi (Lonkar at that time), Nima Patil and Megha also joined us for the lunch. Food was delicious that we took that for our friends in office also. They also liked the food and the way we celebrated Gudhipadwa.

Telugu people celebrate Ugadi on Gudhipadwa. Our house Owner was also co-operating. On Ugadi he gave us some juice which all tastes like sweet, bitter, and soar also. So you may not get idea what it is? Thinking behind this is that in life we have to face all type of experiences. Some are good and some may be bad for us. But you have to face all those challenges without any exception. The juice is just like life, which had some sweet and some bitter. He also gave us sweet roti, which was made by his wife.

Before that we all (me, shrirang, rajendra and Sachin) contributed around 2000 Rs and bought a Colour television of LG. That time India was on tour of Pakistan after around 14 to 15 years. So we all were eager to see matches and we had not TV. So we all contributed and bought TV on auspicious occasion of Gudhipadwa or Ugadi.

That Gudhipadwa was lifetime experience for all of us and I never forget that day.