Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Festival of groundnuts

Yesterday evening I went to the final day of this year's "Kadalekai parishe" (festival of groundnuts). I make it a point to visit it if I am free during the time. There were more shops. There was more variety of nuts. There were more crowds. There were more food stalls. But there were fewer crowds at the big bull temple.

My personal preference was the half fried nuts, though my friends took raw nuts to munch on. The restaurant "Halli thindi" had opened a set of food stalls with a variety of dishes. Some specials were the "Mangalore buns" and "Davangere mensinkai bajji" (Chilli bajji). It was not just mouth watering but also eye watering. But I find things really missing in these festivals are drinking water and the loos.

We took the 5 Rs entry ticket to avoid the not so long queue and go straight in front of the amazing big bull. The decorations were splendid. I spoke to the ticket vendor who happened to a friend of a friend of mine. He has won the tender for ticket vending. He can charge whatever he wants, but he fixed it at 5 bucks. He said that on Monday he had a good collection and the entire business was a profit :-).

After sitting on the stone slabs for sometime and discussing politics, shares etc…we bid goodbye to this year's fest. Wait for another "Karthika Somavara" (last Monday of the month of karthika in hindu calendar) for the fest.

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