Sankranti brings enthusiasm everywhere

Tirupati: After a lull for two years due to Covid pandemic, much enthusiasm prevails everywhere in celebrating Sankranti this year. People of all age groups have been taking part in the festivities. Rangoli competitions become the main attraction while Jallikattu has been taking place in some parts.

People celebrate Sankranti festival with grandeur for three days with Bhogi on the first day followed by Sankranti on the second day and Kanuma on the last day. They consider it a big festival and celebrate the festival with new clothes, sweets and other paraphernalia. Accordingly, all the main bazars in Tirupati have been overcrowded. Especially, people are thronging various cloth shops from footpaths to malls depending on their budget.

To attract the customers, the shopkeepers have been offering a variety of discounts like gifts, lucky dip coupons etc., In TK Street, VV Mahal Road and other areas, people made a beeline before the cloth shops. The readymade shops were also seen attracting the customers in large numbers.

Despite the skyrocketing prices, people were rushing to the flower market as flowers are an essential ingredient for performing pujas and to decorate Rangolis. The prices were seen rising all through the day keeping pace with the increasing demand. Compared with the prices in the last two days, now the prices have gone up by almost 100 per cent.The sweets and savouries shops have also drawn huge crowds as the people were unable to find time to prepare them at their homes. Children were busy flying colourful kites enjoying their festival holidays.

Meanwhile, many villages are gearing up to organise traditional bull-taming sport, said to be an inferior version of Tamil Nadu's Jallikattu which is celebrated on Kanuma Panduga popularly known as Pasuvula Panduga.

Despite a police ban on conducting this event which is dangerous both for the bulls and the tamers, preparations were going on in many villages. While it has been conducted in several villages during the past few days, it has to be seen how police will react to stall the main event on January 16 by overcoming the political pressures.