The Maharashtrian new year is here but Covid-19 has subdued people’s enthusiasm and the festival’s usual pomp
The gudi arrangement at Sanika Desai's home to celebrate Gudi Padwa this year. Photo: Sanika Desai
For a lot of Maharashtrians, it is a sombre Gudi Padwa. While 2020 had been quiet due to the Covid-19 outbreak, they had hoped the situation would change for the better this time around. However, the recent surge in cases has seen Maharashtra go under a lockdown from April 5 and there is no sign of it being lifted any time soon.
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Marking the beginning of spring and a new year for the community, it is one of the biggest festivals in the state, brought in with pomp and fervour in most urban and rural households.
However, the last two years have felt different for Bandra-based Sagar Hogale. The 30-year-old visual effects professional and his family usually headed to their village, Wing, in Satara’s Karad every year for a big celebration. But they haven't been able to do this since 2019. “While there are people in my colony who put up the gudi, we don’t really do it because we have always celebrated it with family and it feels incomplete without them.” Given Covid-19 pandemic has dampened spirits all across the country, the Hogales have respectfully kept celebrations minimal. They will only make puran polis — just like last year — “for the sake of tradition”.
Hogale informs that every year at least one member from their family represents them in their village. While he isn’t always able to go due to work commitments, his mother always goes there to celebrate, as it was a tradition started by his late father. From walking the ‘palki’ around the village to tying the ‘gudi’ above every house, the village comes alive during this time of the year for the family. It does not end there, as they also usually have a ‘jatra’, which is simply an extension of the celebration and includes different kinds of plays that are performed along with some dance and other festivities.
However, just like 2020, this year too has been different for them, and while he misses the annual family gathering, he understands the severity of the situation, and hopes it will be different next year this time around.
Just like Hogale, for Goregaon-based Annapurna Kulkarni, Gudi Padwa is a huge festival celebration. The 24-year-old accessories designer says every year her family visits their hometown in Aarvi near Pune’s Junnar for the 'shobha yatra' where children and adults indulge in different art forms like lezim, talwar, dhol, a Shivaji theatrical and more, as an expression of their culture. Reminiscing the past, she says “It's a huge gathering where the rally starts early in the morning at one temple and goes around a few blocks, cheering, celebrating, singing and dancing to welcome the new year. It's full of energy, joy and happiness.”
Gudi Padwa lunch at Annapurna Kulkarni's house. Photo: Annapurna Kulkarni
Kulkarni adds, “But since lockdown, all of us are celebrating the new year keeping the memories of this yatra in our minds while preparing the most delicious meals. For the last two years, even if we can't step out for this huge gathering, we're all celebrating it with equal enthusiasm while at home. My mother has made modaks, my favourite Marathi delicacy to cheer up the padwa spirit.”
Sanika Desai’s family too is looking at the brighter side of things. The 24-year-old Sion-based illustrator says, “We have put the gudi in our house this year, like last year. It is the arrangement of the copper kalash on mango or neem leaves over a sari or cloth placed on a stick. Every year, we decorate it with rangoli and diyas, wear new clothes, eat good food and also have a family gathering but that is not possible this year.”
“We start with something sweet in the morning like sheera and it is incomplete without shrikhand poori, which my mother makes every year. We also have puran polis that we feast on in the house,” she adds, excitedly.
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