Hot Tea and Warm Rugs

We have just taken out our winter uniforms for school. It is not so cold yet. Winter is called Shishira Ritu in Sanskrit. I love to eat hot things in this season.

Amma took us to the Groundnut Fair yesterday. There were big hills of groundnuts on both sides of the road near the Bull Temple in Bengaluru. Dry nuts, boiled and salted nuts, roasted nuts!

Amma says people in Gujarat have a Ponkh festival in winter. Farmers roast bundles of millet on coal stoves. Everyone eats the fresh, green, plump and tender beads of millet grains called ponkh.

I wore a bright blue sweater to the fair. There were many stalls all along the road. Manu wanted to go on the merry-go-round. I wanted to buy grandma a warm, soft shawl.

It is so cold now. I rub my hands together as I walk to school. My new red bangles make a pretty sound! Oh, how nice, I say aloud and I can see a frosty cloud in front of my mouth as I talk!

My friend Rajni lives in Shimla. In her grandfather's village, they pack snow into bamboo baskets to make cone shaped snow heaps on roof tops. Then the children go to take the blessings of all the elders. Rajni also told me about the Snowman Competition.

In Srinagar, they say “Nausheen Mubaraq!” when the first snow falls. They wrap some snowflakes in a sheet of paper and send it to a friend. The friend has to throw a feast for you after that!

I would love to play in the snow and have a feast of naan and rogan josh too. Rajni says that the trees look lovely when they are covered with snow.

Everybody likes to drink hot tea and she likes to drink milk with jaggery. They can't go out without their jackets, caps, gloves and mufflers, but it is fun to throw snowballs at each other, she says!

During the next winter holidays I hope I can go to Shimla or to Jaisalmer. In Jaisalmer, there is no snow, only sand. I would like to go to the Desert Fair and ride on camels, watch folk dances and puppet shows, and take part in the turban tying contest!

Soon we will be celebrating Sankranti. Janu says her family makes tilgud. Rohan says his family makes yellu. Narsi says he has chigdi during the Sankranti season.

Do you know, all these are made with sesame seeds and jaggery! They must be good for our health in the winter. I like winter. I like it when my friends hug me. I like to snuggle in the chair next to Granny and read a book.

My tree will never be covered with snow.

But I want it to be full of birds and mangoes and squirrels and parrots very soon.