Festival of kites and good food: Make Uttarayan happier with our delicious recipes!

One of the biggest festivals in Gujarat is Uttarayan — the kite flying festival — which falls on January 14.

This is one festival which is celebrated with a lot of fervour and enthusiasm by all communities — Hindus, Muslims, Christians and smaller groups such as Parsis, Jews and non-Gujaratis too.

(Kites flying high, spirits soaring higher: Uttarayan is one of the biggest festivals in Gujarat. (Photo: PTI)

The day of Uttarayan sees everyone up on their terraces, flying kites, assisting fliers by holding the spindle, or just shouting and cheering. A special cheer goes up every time someone from your group cuts the kite of another group.

You will see boys and girls of all ages, parents, uncles, aunts, even grandparents on the terraces, celebrating this festival with music and lots of food. People bring up huge speakers and each terrace has loud music playing and people dancing to popular songs. Even FM radio stations play party music to suit the occasion. There is a lot of competition to ascertain who is the best kite flier — and the most accomplished at cutting others’ kites.

Uttarayan was always a huge festival, but after the business summit 'Vibrant Gujarat' and the International Kite Festival were tied up with it, the event took on an even bigger scale.

(In 2014, Narendra Modi and Salman Khan famously flew a kite together on Uttarayan. (Photo: YouTube)

This festival is also called Makar Sankranti in the Hindi-speaking belt of India

In Gujarat — as indeed, across the country — there are specific dishes and sweets made for every festival. Uttaryan, too, comes with its share of culinary cheer.

One of the most popular dishes during this time is Undhiyu, eaten with puri and jalebi.

Interestingly, all communities make Undhiyu, Hindus, Muslims or Gujarati Christians.

Solomon Benjamin, a resident of Maninagar East, loves Uttarayan. Speaking about the festival, he told me: “We start preparations one day in advance. We tie the kinna (anchor thread) to the kites the previous night itself, so that the next day, we can start flying them immediately, without wasting time. On Uttarayan, we are up on the terrace early in the morning with music systems, kites and threads. We also make Undhiyu and buy jalebis, ber (jujubes), guavas and chikkis to eat. Kite-flying makes everyone hungry, so there should be enough to eat throughout the day.”

He adds, “We make non-vegetarian Undhiyu, we add chicken in it.”

Of course, Undhiyu takes a lot of time to prepare, so it’s easier to just buy it from the hundreds of eateries that sell it by hundreds of kilograms.

(One of the most popular dishes during this time is the Undhiyu. (Photo courtesy: Rushabh Purohit)

Long lines can be seen outside eateries selling Undhiyu and jalebi on Uttarayan day.

But what all households prepare is the sweet dish Chikki, made out of jaggery and peanuts or sesame seeds or even dry fruits. Since the weather is cold, Chikki is hugely popular as people keep snacking on it while flying kites.

Other delicacies very popular on the festive day are various seasonal fruits like guava, bers and sugarcane cubes.

Another popular preparation is Khichda — which is something like Khichdi, but instead of rice, broken wheat is used with several lentils. The Muslim community makes this with mutton, or sometimes chicken.

In many places in Saurashtra, people prepare sweet Khichda, which is made out of wheat. Sweet Khichda is also made in Rajasthan on Makar Sankranti.

(In the sweets department, chikkis and jalebis are ever-popular on Uttarayan. (Photos: Wikimedia Commons)

In Muslim localities, there are barbeques at night along with Tukkal-flying on the terrace. 'Tukkals' are paper lamps that are lit and hung to the kite thread, so that they light up the entire sky at night. Barbequing is a more recent culinary trend seen in Muslim localities.

Kite flying is a passion with most and young boys have grown up learning this art. Ankit Patel, a resident of New Ranip in Ahmedabad, recounted: “We always start early in the morning on the terrace of a friend and after lunch, we move to someone else’s terrace. In the whole day, we might move to 3-4 locations. In between, we continuously chomp on chikki and Undhiyu.”

(Muslims fly Tukkals — kites with paper lanterns attached to them, brightening up the night sky. (Photo courtesy: Flickr)

Ref: Festival of kites and good food: Make Uttarayan happier with our delicious recipes! (dailyo)