Akshaya Thrithya

Or Akkha Teej (famously called back home in Rajasthan) brings back a whole lot of memories to me. This festival is one which was always celebrated in my village (Deshnok – Bikaner dist) in Rajasthan with a lot of relatives and when I say lot, I mean a whole lot of them (nearly 150 people in one house)!!!

As per the Jain tradition, today is the day when the first Thrithankar (Rishabh Bhagwan) broke his fast after completing one whole year of giving up food of any kind and living only on water. Jains consider this day as very auspicious and people who undertake similar fasting rituals break their fast with sugarcane juice today. This day also marks the foundation of the city of Bikaner and hence it is kind of a double joy to residents like me…

This is the day when there is kite flying activity happening from day break till night fall!!! Normally all the male folk indulge themselves in flying kites and if you do happen to visit Bikaner during this time, you can actually get the feel of the festivities upclose… There are even bets placed on who cuts the most kites, whose kite flies the farthest and so on and so forth!!!

The women folk indulge in cooking the very famous and scrumptious Khichda (made 4 times in 2 days) and this is made from wheat, bajra and jowar with lots of ghee. Apart from Khichda, there is badi ki sabzi, laapsi and ambalwaani (tamarind water). The food is served only in silver utensils under the guidance of the eldest person in the house…

What I clearly recollect about this day is my grandmother who would make sure that each member of the house is well-fed and usually would be the person who would pour homemade ghee on our food… And she would do this with her shaky hands and considering that she was over 80, you could imagine the amount of ghee that would fall in the plate!!! :-) hmmmmm heaven…

Sadly over the past few years, this kind of celebration is no longer happening, esp. after the demise of my grandmother. Everyone has kind of moved on with their lives and bringing everyone together to celebrate the festival would be a Herculean task… But I have just this one wish that I get to relive those wonderful days of fun and laughter. Hope it does not remain as only a dream :-(

Some facts on Akshaya Trithya

It usually falls on the 3rd day of bright Vaikash and is considered very auspicious particularly in Hindu tradition. Many couples get married today as it is considered to be the best day of the year – in fact my parents got married on Akshaya Thrithya and so did Aishwarya and Abhishek Bachchan. Though am not sure if buying gold or silver is auspicious but down south this seems to be the tradition.