Tuesday, December 18, 2012

3 fests in 3 cities


Come December, the three cities I have been associated with hosts 3 annual fests. One for handmade arts, crafts, the second for music and the third for sugar cakes.

The first in the list is the festival of Arts, crafts, handlooms. I like handicrafts and handlooms. And so when there is a mela  organized for that,you can bet I am there. Especially the December All india arts and crafts mela which happens at the city where I live, Hyderabad. The venue is the crafts village, Shilparamam. Anything I write about this will be a repeat of this. This year on Sunday,  I quickly picked up arts and crafts from Gujarat, Kashmir, West Bengal and that elusive reclining Ganesha which I mentioned in one of my older posts.

The second fest happens in Chennai,my birth place. This city experiences concert tourism  this month and draws music lovers from all over the world;  predominantly in the genre of carnatic music.  This fest begins on the tamil month Margazhi and  so is known as Margazhi Isai vizha( margazhi is the tamil month, isai is music and vizha is fest) or december kacheri(concert). An year or so back, i wrote an article on this for 'I love madras. Anything i write about this will be a repeat of this article "Margazhi, music and my memories"

And last but not the least, the third fest in my list captures the yuletide mood of the city I was raised in  and lived, Bangalore. 

Every festival is connected to some tradition or the other. But so often, we don't know why we do the things we do. Fact is that the smallest custom goes back a long way.

 Another festival which is an amalgamation of different legends, myths and faiths from across the world is Xmas. Everybody has their own special memories and my Xmas memories revolve around Bangalore’s famous high street,  Brigade road. The whole road would be festooned with christmas lights and the road  is closed to vehicular traffic till the newyear. You can amble, stroll  on this street with huge Santas for company  without the fear of being run down by a vehicle. 

                         Brigade road dressed with christmas and new year lights, The traders association of this road do a similar dressing during diwali and offer lot of gifts through raffles


The twinkling festooned serial lights, stars  and the huge Santas distributing sweets to little kids will scream that New year carnivals don’t happen only in Goa, but also in places like Bangalore’s high fashion street, Brigade road.  And one of the corner building on the road ,Nilgiris nest( a boarding hotel), are the ones who organize and hosts this special fest, called the annual Nilgiri's Sugar cake exhibition.  The ground floor of the building is the supermarket called Nilgiris, the first supermarket which started in 1905 and stocks the best diary products and baked goodies. Their signature rich  bake called  Nilgiris Plum cakes  has that bitter sweet taste, which  for me has no parallels . I am yet to taste a plum cake which can beat this taste. 


                                          The nilgiris product range
Apart from the rich plum cakes, they have chocolate Xmas tree, kalkals, Marzipan, Yule logs and other Christmas goodies. But the highlight of their creations  are displayed  at The St. Josephs school grounds, Vittal Mallya road. They  host an unique exhibition called the sugar cake exhibition during Xmas time. This exhibition which is around 40 years old  has earlier had giant sugar cake replicas of Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore Palace, seven wonders of the world like Macchu Picchu, Taj MAhal and then the Buckhingham palace, Eiffel tower etc. Each cake is made with powdered sugar, gelatin, colored and flavoring agents and lot of man hours. The Master piece cakes are usually as big  as15 feet in height and can be anywhere between 30-50 feet wide.  The rest of the models are smaller in size. There are atleast 15 exhibits of which 10 are won by the viewing public through raffle tickets. The exhibiton has an entry ticket and the amount raised from this goes to the charity. The cakes are also not sold and are given to children in orphanages.

Some of their sugar crafts at the annual exhibits 


                                      A sugar cake model of The taj hotel mumbai, the replica was made the year blasts occured at leopald.
                            The Buckingham palace and the big ben, the men working on the model look half the size of the model

                                                           A model of Bangalore palace.

                             Wonders of the world -  Taj mahal and christ the redeemer, rio

                                                      a smaller model cake of a bride
                                                                the shoe house
                    This years flavor symbolizing communal harmony- a  pentagon symbolising the five faiths, temple, church, masjid, pagoda( buddhism), gurudwara 22feet wide and 16 feet in height


This art was mastered by one of the 3rd generation  owner of this enterprise. His desire for sugar modelling took him to Europe,where he visited Swiss, holland, Germany. He was inspired by the cake models  that he saw in Belgium and learnt this art there. My sister a nutritionist and dietician who worked here as food technologist in the late 90's and early 2K was the originator of their ready mixes and the source of this info. 

image courtesy: Google

25 comments:

  1. oh ithu brigade roadla vaikarangala?/ from wen? naan paathathayilla :((

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    1. the last fortnight of dec till jan 1st every year at St, Joseph school grounds, adjacent to vijay mallya's UB city, It is happening since 1970.

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    2. ooohh....i the missed :( chaance kedacha paakanum..aama neeng aepdi ella state ella festivitiesku aajar aadirel?? :D:D oray the poraamais :D

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    3. a scaled down version of the music fest happens here during march in hyd...appo daan naan ponen..

      Micchapadi pona centuryla cake festkku pona memoriesdaan.....so no poramai:)

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  2. your blog posts are so informative - love them! I have not been to any of these fests - will have to check them out sometime!

    My mum was recently telling me about the local festivals she went to with her siblings in Veraval (Somnath), Gujarat. The one thing that happens in Gujarat and I've attended is the Kite Flying festival....N.Modi does a great job of organizing one on the banks of Sabarmati!

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    1. Thank you, Shachi:)

      Plan it sometime, you will love it. Oh, nice to know about veraval festival. Hav'nt visited gujarat a colorful state. especially now the Rannkutchh fest is on. YES, modi is promoting the state well, nice job. I like AB's tourism advt on gujarat :)

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  4. There is not a time in India when we are not celebrating something or other.Loved all your information about the celebrations in Bangalore and Chennai. It does seem to be a month of celebrations.

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    1. Absolutely right about the celebration, shows that we enjoy life. Thanks, yes the year end holiday mood is already on.

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  5. Every month has its own celebrations in one or other place in India... The sugar crafts are so awesome... And the Margazhi music season is a traditional one in Chennai... Excellent write-up :)

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  6. YES, hari, every month is a celebration. The holiday mood this month is making the celebration extra special. Thanks :)

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  7. interesting and informative ashaji..cheers

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  8. Yes, each fest represents a little bit of the city's character and culture.

    The music festival in Chennai needs a real revamp - too much crammed in too short a time in music halls that have not kept pace with the times and formats that haven't moved an inch since 1800s !

    Brigade road - Ah yes, except that the word stroll and brigade Road cannot be mentioned in the same sentence. More like "jostle" :)

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    1. clueless about the present day formats in chennai:) I long back visited that too at Ramanakendra. But we regularly visit the music concert of kalasagaram(hyd) and it happens in makeshift pandals and i like the old world charm here :)

      Reg, BG - Now it is jostle like you said. my memories date back to early 2k when i took my little ones to meet the huge Santa's.

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  9. I like Brigade road which is always decked up for some reason or the other. Nice pics.

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  10. you know this is the best thing i like in india we have so many festivities and so many occasiions

    Bikram's

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  11. after reading your blog i withparents and dot in tow went to check out cake exhibition reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally amazing i guess that is called passion kudos to the bakers

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  12. PASSION is the right word. Thank you:)

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  13. Amazing is the word!! It is truly an art!! Thanks for sharing such wonderful celebrations! :)

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  14. these was really a great festivals. thanks for sharing...
    Festivals Of India

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