BATHUKAMMA CELEBRATIONS IN TORONTO, CANADA

Bathukamma festival is celebrated with great enthusiasm and gaiety in Toronto, Canada. It was celebrated ON September 24th 2006 at the sprawling Wilket Creek Park, North York, the same place where the celebrations were held last year. Celebrations were organized by the Telangana Development Forum ( TDF), Toronto chapter, as part of the TDF Bathukamma celebrations in other North American cities. It was an amazing gathering where everyone was pleased to meet and greet more than 100 people. Some of the participants came from long distance – Ottawa, Montreal, and even New Jersey showing the spirit of the participants to celebrate the festival.

The event was scheduled from 11 AM - 6PM. By noon good number of people gathered and everyone was overwhelmed to see all the excitement in the faces of ladies and kids coming with beautiful Bathukammas, transporting people into the memory lanes of the Bathukamma celebrations in Telangana villages and towns. It was heartening to see such a large turn out in spite of a rainy and windy weather forecast for the day. Rain god perhaps didn’t want to disappoint such a spirited and joyful gathering and came only to greet the crowd with a minute of light showers.

Initially Bathukamma was scheduled after lunch at 3pm, but seeing the excitement it was started immediately. Bathukammas made of a wide variety of brightly hued flowers, some seemingly appearing like gunugu were placed in the middle and women played around the Bathukammas with songs in the rhythm of “Bathukamma Bathukamma Uyyaalo. The warming and easing up took some time, but it’s only a few minutes before it picked up speed and the song and play synchronized. Women and children attired in bright and beautiful traditional costumes, dancing and singing in chorus around the fabulous flower heaps of Bathukammas was a graceful sight to watch .Some of the elders visiting their children in Canada who attended the event guided the other women members with the bathukamma songs. Among them, Smt. Devireddy Janakamma garu played an active role in explaining and showing the traditional ways of playing the bathukamma.

Next, lunch was served and what a great feast it was – with an assortment of traditional and mouth watering dishes including Pulihora and Daddojanam, it was difficult to choose. Everyone literally feasted. Kudos to all the Ladies and the gentlemen who helped them for providing a sumptuous lunch.

After lunch Omkaram Artham, anchored the event. Welcoming all the participants he said Bathukamma has rekindled all his childhood memories of going to the near by hillocks and fields in his village to gather Thangedu and gunugu poolu. He urged all the participants to introduce themselves. The introductions were interspersed with witty remarks leading to bursts of laughter. Sudhir Kodati, who came from Ottawa to attend the festival, gave a brief note on Telangana Development Forum activities and the context in which Bathukamma is celebrated. He referred to a quote by R.Vidyasagar Rao garu, that “if we do not get actively involved in celebrating bathukamma, which is our cultural icon, our next generation will see the bathukammas only in the museums”. Suchand Pingili, who came from Montreal, explained the importance of the bathukamma festival. He said it’s a life affirming festival and every family should proudly celebrate it.

Best Bathukamma prizes were awarded to Madadi Rajini, Yerramreddy Smitha and a consolation prize to Peddi Vanaja. Prizes were sponsored by Prabhaker Gangishetty’s family. After informal greetings and prize distributions, ladies played bathukamma once again. Mokirala Varalakshmi garu sang “Ammavari pata” before bathukamma nimajjanam . Later the women members ceremoniously left the bathukammas into the nearby creek. Bathukammas floating on the slow moving water in the twilight sun with wafting smoke from agarbatthi’s in Bathukamma was a beautiful site to watch. After the Nimajjanam “sathu pindi” was distributed to everyone.

An elderly woman, Mrs. Vijaya said she never dreamed of celebrating Bathukamma in Canada and the moment she heard of the event she felt very excited and brushed up her long forgotten Bathukamma making skills. Most of the women and men who participated said they’ll come with all their friends and acquaintances for the next year celebrations.

Surender Peddi in his vote of thanks conveyed that “Bathukamma is the traditional festival of Telangana which is the cultural identity of Telangana people and every one should feel proud to celebrate irrespective of where they are living”. He thanked all the participants and iterated that TDF will organize many more events and solicited every ones’ active involvement.

The event was organized by Surender Peddi and Mahesh Madadi who have taken time out of their busy schedules to make it Grand Success. They would like to extend thanks to Omkaram Artham, Sudhir Kodati, Chandra swargam, koteshwar Rao Chittaluri, Shanti Bojodla, Madadi Rajini, Peddi Vanaja and others who have worked hard to organize and make the event a great success.