Bathukamma turns pink

HYDERABAD: A conical arrangement of flowers of various hues, the tip of which is adorned by either turmeric or pumpkin flower, forms the traditional Bathukamma idol. Bathukamma at the Tank Bund road this year, came with a makeover. The T-enthusiasts gave it a revolutionary touch and instead of the usual multi-coloured idol, a pinkcoloured, almost 12-ft high Bathukamma was presented to the public.Traditional idols also found their place in the celebrations.The multi-coloured smaller Bathukamma idols were placed around the big idol and the Telangana supporters placed little pink flags atop the idols.A huge crowd gathered for this celebration organised by the Telangana Jagriti, cultural wing of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.Children sat around the idols holding banners demanding a separate T state.“Protect Telangana culture”, “Let’s give a new direction for Telangana” and other slogans were on display on the banners.Around this, women danced to the tune of folk songs in three concentric circles welcoming Bathukamma.They tossed in Telangana slogans to the beat periodically.Passersby, who couldn’t resist the catchy tunes, parked their vehicles by the roadside and joined the celebrations.Many people gathered at the venue spoke passionately about safeguarding the region’s culture.Mariamma, a septuagenarian who had come from Kailasagiri, said she is a follower of Christianity but has come to the venue to pray for people from Telangana.“I want their dreams to come true,” she said.G K Murthy, a staffer in the directorate of medical education, had come for the same reason.He felt such gatherings will encourage people to protect the Telangana culture.There were a few who stood watching the celebrations out of curiosity and others who were enthralled by the songs.Neeta, a homemaker, was seeing the celebration for the first time and what attracted her to the event were the innovative songs specially written for the occasion.A while later, one could see a crowd of people witnessing Bathukamma fete from the flyover as well.Festive fervour ruled the streets for the day.There was a touch of Anna Hazare too to the celebrations with quite a few turning up with Hazare caps.But the only difference was that they sported the caps with the Telangana slogans writ large on them.