Phool-Bangla

Radhe Radhe ! Buddha-Purnima is one of my most favorite festivals. Some of the best things in my life occurred on Buddha-Purnima. Winning a position in the Merit List during the B.Ed finals, for instance. It is only when I grew up, I learnt that it is Vaishakhi Purnima as well, and the very occasion called Radha-Gobindaji’s Phool-bangla. Imagine my delight when I came to know that it is also called Madhavi-Purnima !
From the beginning itself, my parents used to give Satyanarayan Puja on this day. Well, I have Radha-Gobindaji too. So why not we celebrate Phool-bangla as well ? As a result while parents got geared up for Satyanarayan Puja, I spent the entire day making flower-garments for Radha-Gobindaji. It was sheer ecstatic ! The aunties and uncles from Sarada-sangha (mom’s satsang-group) loved it !
This year, DH put in a lot of effort to buy the flowers. He really had to numerous detours to the flower-bazaar to get any worthwhile flower. The cost of flowers in Mumbai fluctuates in a fantastic manner. On occasions such as Buddha-Purnima, it rockets sky-high. Besides being highly priced, a good variety is hardly available. He had got a whole lot of mogras, but they got all spoilt the next morning. So he went to get some more. But mogras were no more available, so he got rajanigandhas (tuberoses). Then both of us spent the entire day sewing dresses for our Beloveds.
.

We made the dhoti, skirt and uttariyas of tuberoses, Gobindaji’s kachha had roses at the end, and his uttariya too had roses in between. The waist-bands and head-bands are made of minutely folded petals of extremely fragrant baby-pink roses.

In the evening, the house was aflame with fragrance The kirtan was magnificent, and so was the Harikatha. What was the bhog? Stuffed karela with paneer and soya-kheema, sweet juicy colorful boondis and aam-ras.