“Dussehra is one festival for which our entire family comes together. It’s celebrated to mark the victory of good over evil and Gods over demons. We call it Vijayadashami. We pay respect to Goddess Durga who defeated the demon Mahishasura. I would eagerly wait for the Festival to meet my cousins at one place. Since I belonged to Khammam District, we would also have Bathukamma during the Dussehra. I still remember those days where we used to wake up early in the morning to gather all kinds of flowers like Thangidi, Adavi Chamanthi, Gummadi etc

We would prepare those flowers and trim the stems according to the size of the Bathukamma that was planned for that day. All of us would dress up in traditional attires and participate in various activities. The highlight of the celebrations in our village was procession of Lord Narasimhaswamy. Then, we would watch Paala pitta ( Indian roller) on the Jammi tree. We would walk miles to see that bird. This trend continued till I got married and moved to Vijaywada.

Overall the years, things changed and I began to feel that life had taken a materialistic turn, where traditional practices were no longer followed by people. It really bothered me and pushed me to start Sridevi Samkruthika Sanghika Samkhema Sangam. We, as a community, work together to revive the long lost cultural trends, especially among the newer generations. To make everyone aware of our culture, we started conducting various competitions during the festive season. One such competition was to dress up like Goddess Durga in her 9 avatars each of the nine days of Dussehra Festival. This made a significant impact among the locals and everyone started contesting in it. I also started teaching Kolatam ( folk dance with sticks) to women of all age groups to keep the tradition intact. I strongly believe that it is important to maintain such traditions and carry them forward for the generations to come.”

#Dussehra2019 #Festive #IndianCulture #Joy #Celebrate #Tradition #Vijayadasami #Telangana #Bathukamma #GoddessDurga #Birds #Nature #History #India #Andhra #HumansofAndhra