Ugadi celebration - Nairn style

This last weekend was Ugadi, another New Year celebration in India .... and who are we to not celebrate ??  It is the New Year Celebration for the Deccan people which is a large plateau area in India - see the map below.  It is on a different day each year due to following the lunar calendar. 

The day is celebrated with family and friends getting together and eating a feast, with many people eating a dish with 'six tastes'.  Bevu Bella, as it is known, symbolises the fact that life is a mix of emotions - sadness, anger, fear, surprise, happiness and disgust.  I thought this was very apt given the mix of emotions that we are going through at the moment with our impending move to Hong Kong.

The dish apperently contains the following - I have no idea what it tastes like..... sounds horrible:

1. Sadness  they use the flowers from a tree called neem
2. Anger   they use chillis
3. Fear    they use salt
4. Happiness   they use cane sugar
5. Disgust  they use tamarind
6. Surprise   they use green mango

Well, we actually celebrated with our wonderful friends as a final goodbye dinner not including Bevu Bella.  The kids had a fun evening of final dogeball antics and movie time together, while the parents shared some lovely champagen and wine.  At the end of the evening we managed to have our own little firework fun in the street.  Much to the disgust of a few neighbours we managed to celebrate leaving India with a BANG !

Happy Ugadi !!