Kadaley kai parsey

A Fable.
One of my favourites. The picture depicts an unsuspecting Iravatha - Indra's elephant - talking up some villagers to the heavenly abode.

A village in Bangalore. Time: unknown. A bull keeping grazing & feeding on the groundnuts. Villagers plan to attack it, but that night their crops are mysteriously destroyed. They beg forgiveness from God for their evil plan. Offer heaps of ground nut on one day of the year to the bulls. God is pleased. A huge temple of a bull - Nandi - now stands (monolithic I think), and closeby another huge rock carving of the Elephant god - Ganesha. And, the place thus gets its name Basavana(bull) Gudi(temple), and the groundnut offering becomes a tradition Kadaley kai (groundnut) parsey (fair). Well, I am sure various other stories exist. This, one must agree is a nice one.

Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome to Kadley Kai Parsey. A fair, a jatre, a typical Indian event. A few days back - Nov 29th - I went to the fair, 8:30 to 10am, and herz the account.

Its a 3 day festival. I was visiting on the 2nd day, and quite early in the day. The shop keepers were putting up their stalls. I decided to visit the temples first - that keeps my mom happy - and then leisurely move around. The huge Nandi seemed sleepy; reflected more by yesterday's garlands that were half-wilted.



The stone pillar is the dwaja-stumba (right ??), kind of a flag-pole.


Most temples have these snake gods under some Ficus trees.



First to catch attention was this granny. As I took this snap, she noticed, called me up and asked for another snap to be taken.

She called her son (posing as a customer), and grand-daughter in the background. Daughter-in-law wasn't interested in the show, and kept away. As I slowly found out, most of the groundnut sellers were from Dharmapuri ( 200Km away in Tamilnadu). A few from Mandya & Andhra, but it was predominantly Dharmapuri villagers who have been coming here annually to sell.


This chap was quite shy. Moved away as soon as I took this snap. Two gardeners came up, and said some people like you have donated him/her to the temple yesterday. I was taken aback. This karru looked out of place...grazzing I asked....ah...don't worry...it may go anywhere...none of us will stop it!!!! Well, I majorly appreciated their generosity & moved on.


Police bando-bast, as we call it. This event attracts hazzar crowd. And, security is neccessary. The constables were awaiting orders I guess.


The right-most person was their senior officer. As I took the snap, somebody sarcastically remarked, 'Take a very good snap of him'


Moving on to the streets. Bangalore traffic was coming to life(hell ?). Flanking the busy roads, along with the parked bikes & cars were the groundnut sellers, toy sellers, fancy-item sellers, and so on...

This old lady said they are from Bombay; they had shiny caps, swords & bows - 5 Rs each -



This family was cleaning up the burnt groundnuts. Fresh groundnuts & burnt groundnuts were on sale. I am not sure if any other kinds of ground-nuts were sold. I noticed the fresh & the burnt ones only.

Yeah! this Ajji cleaning up fresh-groundnut, the ones plucked/unearthed. And, here she rubs them on the ground to remove the mud sticking to it.


Various groundnut shades. The lady gave me a great smile.

Groundnut garbage ;-)

And, BCC at work. The lady to the left wasn't keen on coming on the picture.

A stall of clay gods. And this kiddo posed with baby krishna for me. Couple of her aunts, and an uncle were around. They sat leisurely. And, were doting on the little kid. This family was from Salem, Tamilnadu.

Yes, chains, necklaces, and such fancy items. This family stays somewhere in Yeshwanthpura, and hawk them in the Majestic area.

Boys trying there luck. One rupee to play the game. You throw that ring, and if it fall on a 5Rs or 10Rs or a soap or a biscuit pack. You take them home. The boys were trying valiantly with no luck. The ring simply was bouncing off ;-)) The lady in green owned the stall

I put the items closer & took this picture.

It was 9:53 in my watch, decided to get to office. Started talking to this sugarcane chap. Add a drink - 5Rs - I was his first customer.

Well, stuff like this makes up an Indian fair. I missed out on gaint-wheels etc. It was too early in the morning for a lot of such stalls. Its the festive atmosphere that hits you. People moving around with a spring in their steps, music, hawkers shouting their wares off, lot of bright clothings, some people ready to sell you something, some totally resigned, a crowd to navigate through. Excitement 'bout something ahead, not clearly visible nor hearable. Temples, prayers. Sweet stalls, toys, amusement games. You walk with your friends gigling/laughing, pointing to something/someone. Or would have walked as a young one holding your fathers/mothers hand tightly, excited like anything. Colors never seen before and sights unimaginable. Its all there for you. You gonna mingle, enjoy & get lost. Thats Life, what say ?