Sankranti kicks off with Bhogi

Khammam: Bhogi, the first day of the three-day Sankranti, the festival of harvest, began with gaiety with people lighting bonfires across the Khammam district in the early hours of Thursday.

The streets and surrounding colonies in Khammam town wore festive look with beautiful rangoli designs in front of almost all houses along with colourful kites flying in the sky.

As part of the celebrations, women since early hours found busy drawing rangoli designs in front of their houses and placing gobbamma (prepared with cow dung), nine variety of seeds (nava dhanyalau) and regu pandlu in the middle of the rangoli designs.

Children as well as youth and also elders competed with others in flying the kites from the rooftops of their buildings. Several people’s organisations conducted rangoli competitions for women to bring out their talent.

Shopping malls and mini stalls at Kamaan Bazaar, Gandhi Chowk, Mayuri centre and Kaspa Bazaar in the town were decorated with colourful lights and flexies with special offers to attract the customers. Goda Devi Kalyanam was organised in many temples on this occasion and were decorated with flowers.

Bus stands and railway station were jam-packed with huge rush of people going to their villages to celebrate the Sankranti with their family members.