Happy Dussehra to all of you. Wishing you all peace, prosperity and good health.
May this day clear all the evils of our lives and brings joy, peace and prosperity in and around our life.
Happy Vijayadashmi!
Dussehra the most important festival celebrated all over India. This is the festival that remind us that truth or goodness always triumphs over bad and evil. No matter how good, intelligent, brave and strong a person can be but truth and goodness always marks the victory over the wrong and evil. Though in the present time, where evil, lies and wrongs are all over around our lives but these old set examples show us a light in a dark tunnel. To my knowledge Ravan was the most intelligent, strong, brave, highly educated, pious and a great devotee of Shiva.
He was a wealthy king of a strong nation. But the truth is wealth and intelligence always gives birth to greed and jealousy. Success and power takes away the ability to think wisely and accept the failures. Demon is not the person “Ravan” but his greed, jealousy, pride and action. His fall was due to the lack of wisdom. I respect Ravan for his intelligence and achievements but his pride and actions made him the person he is known in the history.
In the present time, we forgot the difference between intelligence and wisdom. We are heading and pushing our kids to be intelligent and highly educated and unconsciously nurturing “Ravan” in them. Being competitive is good but without wisdom it delivers pride, greed and jealousy. There are very few people who can take success and power well in their lives. The feeling and desire of having more and more in life makes you an egocentric for whom nothing is more important than oneself.
In today’s time (on social media), there are so many stories about Ram and Ravan and I don’t want to pass my judgement on that infact I am too small and trivial to even say anything about them. All I can say is that was past, we are not even sure if that exist or not. We can learn from the moral of the story and go ahead in our lives with a conviction that truth and goodness always triumphs over bad and evil no matter how intelligent, wealthy or successful the evil is…..
Now if we come to the festivity and the brightest part of the festival, Dussehra and Vijayadashmi are celebrated with lot of authentic delicious recipes served as a meal and Prasad on the auspicious day. I belong to the northern part of India where festivity begins on the first day of Navratris with the fasting and worshipping Goddess Durga and her nine forms of Devi for nine days. On the first navratri we sow seeds of barley or “Jaun” in an earthern pot. We watered them every day so that they sprout in to long sheaves by the 10th day of Vijayadashmi or Dussehra. My Mom told to me to keep them covered so that they will grow taller and more yellow in color. It has a significance of prosperity and good health in the family.
During pooja on Dussehra weapons, tools, ledger, books, pen and pencils are worshipped, sheaves of barley are tied to them. After pooja sheaves of barley are placed behind the ears of all the males in the family. For the Prasad lauki wali dahi with malai peda are distributed to everyone. The meal of the day is vegetarian with urad dal, aloo gobhi, chawal, chapatis, boondi raita and chutney.
When I came to US I realized Lauki wali dahi is very specific to certain part of northern India. I wanted to share this recipe with you guys on this auspicious day of Dussehra. Instead of peda I made malai burfi with the available ingredients. Hope this day brings more happiness and peace in the world.
Shub Dussehra.
- Lauki Ki Dahi
- 1/2 cup Lauki (Bottle Gourd), grated and boiled
- 3 cups Milk
- 1/2 tsp. Yogurt Culture
- Malai Burfi
- 2 cups Ricotta Cheese
- 2 tsp. Ghee
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 1/2 cup Milk Powder
- 1/2 tsp. Cardamom Powder
- Few Strands crushed Saffron
- Sliced Almonds and Pistachios for garnishing
- Lauki Ki Dahi
- Boil the milk and keep it aside to cool down.
- The milk should be slightly warm for good yogurt.
- Mix boiled lauki and milk.
- Add little bit of sugar for extra sweetness.(Its optional)
- Add culture in the milk and mix it well.
- Keep it in a warm place for 6-7 hours or overnite.
- Cover the container with warm cloth in winter.
- Refrigitrate it and enjoy delicious yogurt with Malai Burfi
- Malai Burfi
- Heat non stick pan on low heat.
- Add ghee, ricotta and sugar.
- Cook until sugar is melted and ricotta is thicker in consistency
- Add milk powder, saffron and cardamom powder.
- Cook it and keep stirring until the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan.
- Pour the mixture in to greased container.
- Spread it well with the spatuala, garnish it with nuts.
- Cool, cut in to pieces.
- Serve with lauki ki Dahi
- Happy Dusshera!
