BY J.R.PRASAD
HYDERABAD Jan. 3: Cultural tourism has become a hot theme among busy professionals of the city in the run-up to Sankranti. Many of them are travelling to the lush green Godavari districts to rejuvenate themselves and also to create awareness among their children about the culture of the state. Hundreds are thronging tourist offices to visit villages where Sankranti is being celebrated in traditional fervour, pomp and gaiety. Their city-born and city-bred kids are totally unaware of how the festival is being celebrated in villages and the professionals want them to experience it firsthand. In villages, colourful rangoli patterns are drawn in front of rural households. Cow dung cakes bedecked with flowers are placed in an aesthetic manner on the patterns.
Another common practice in rural households during the harvest festival is kirtan singing and taking around decorated bulls. “We are planning a visit to Konaseema to get a glimpse of the Telugu tradition,” said Ms Garikapati Shanti, an interior designer from Secunderabad. “On the Sankranti day, Pongali, a dish prepared with rice is offered to Sankranti Lakshmi,” says Ms Tadikonda Satya, a textile designer in Kundanbagh. “Another dish prepared on the day is the pumpkin curry. But city dwellers are unfamiliar with all this.” She adds that she wants her children to get familiar with the preparation of these dishes.
Tour operators are offering special tour packages for nostalgic professionals. “They will be taken to remote villages,” said Mr Dantu Nagarjuna Sarma of Imprint Travel and Tours.
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