Pongal

Today is Pongal. Yesterday I had been to Brickfields to buy some Groceries. That is the place here in KL where majority of Indian (read it South Indian) shops and eateries are situated. Here there is a concentration of Indian population both locals and expatriates.
The main thing which struck me was the crowd and the wares which were on sale. First there was plenty of sugar cane (karumbu), then lot of 'manjal kottu' (turmeric leaves) whose leaves were the size of a small banana plant. There were, the new pongal panais (earthern pots), fruits, vegetables, betel leaves, sweets, plastic thoranams, flowers, garlands and so on.
Few years back garlands meant some jasmins tied together here and there with a woolen thread. But now the garland making has been mastered and each garland vies with another beautifully done with so many lovely flowers available here. There were temporary shops all around the platforms in front of the grocery and magzine shops.
I remembered the days when I used to search and search to get betel leaves for navarathri festivals. There never used to be so many wares sold for any festival. Now I can see every year the wares are also increasing and so does the crowd.

I think the media (visual) has a role to play in this consumerism. (yes I do equate these festivities to consumerism) I find the tamil programs which are aired in the TV , (previously there was no separate tamil channels only some few tamil movies aired thrice a week or so) showing great emphasis on these festivals. Every now and then I see advertizements shouting for some wares and talking about 'tamilar tirunal' ulavar tirunal' . There is an indirect suggestion that being a tamilian one should celeberate this festival with gusto, following certain tradition. Again and again they show people making pongal in new earthern pots, shouting pongalo pongal with a background decorated with fresh sugar cane, turmeric plants and what not. This in effect makes people throng to the market to buy these things.
I am not saying all these are bad or good but this is just an observation.
Any way I did feel I was in a Chennai street especially 'ranganathan street' in T Nagar, jostling around people to move forward. There was one more similarity which made me sad. Like the little India of Singapore and the market places of India the whole place needed lot of cleaning and maintenance.