Ugadi celebrated with gusto in South Coastal Andhra

NELLORE/ONGOLE

Big social gatherings were back with a bang as Sri Subakruthnama Samvatsaram, the Telugu New Year, was celebrated with fanfare acrosss south coastal Andhra Pradesh on Saturday.

In Nellore, all the arterial road junctions, including the RTC Bus Stand Centre, VRC centre, Gandhi Bomma centre, were flooded with people who made big purchases for the celebrations for the spring festival, thanks to the lifting of curbs imposed to combat coronavirus.

SPSR Nellore District Collector K.V.N. Chakaradhar Babu and Zilla Parishad Chairperson Anam Arunamma led the celebrations in Nellore as N. Subayya Sastri predicted bountiful crops in the new year during the traditional almanac reading. Students of the Atmakur Music School enthralled the audience.

Vedic priest Matampalli Dakshinamurthy performed special prayers at the Seetarama temple in Ongole attended by, among others, Superintendent of Police Malika Garg and her husband and IPS officer Vakul Jindal. A large number of people thronged Krishna Mandiram at Santhapeta on the occasion.

Girls plucked raw mangoes from orchards to make the special ‘Ugadi Pachchadi’ with sweet, sour, salt, pungent, spice and bitter taste to imbibe the right spirit to face the rough and tumble of life with poise.

Astrological predictions for the new year on television channels were preferred by a section of people who celebrated the festival at their homes to avoid contracting coronavirus that caused havoc in the last two years.