Bhogi

For those of you from my ancestral land of Andhra - you know what Bhogi is. And how important it is to all Telugus. Living in the US, we have to rule out భోగి మంట. But we were not prepared to give up on the భోగి పళ్ళు part.

A quick refresher on what this meant. Children in the house would be dressed up in their finest. And towards the evening, the elders would shower the children with a mix of regi pandlu, sugarcane pieces, small coins and akshatas. This is supposed to ensure that the children are not affected by dishti.

Anyway, in the land of Lincoln, getting regi pandlu or sugarcane is usually tough. More so in our new 'town'. So, last year Amma substituted them with cranberries. But this year, as luck would have it, none of the stores in our great town had any cranberries. So, we had to find an substitute for the substitute. And what was that? Any guesses?

Just in case you were wondering... I was NOT saying "Ayyo!", but was taking blessings from the Aarti. Also, if you would have noticed, this is the new Pattu Paavada that Chaitanya Aunty gave me. Thank you Aunty!

Here is a photo from last year's Bhogi. Do you notice how much I have grown?

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