025 One Spoon, Every Taste
Hey Neem Flowers, at Ugadi we eat you with jaggery, tamarind, raw mango, salt and chilli, all in one spoon, to begin the year.
Can we accept the bitter with the sweet?
Can you accept the bitter with the sweet?
It is Ugadi morning. In homes across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, a small bowl is passed around before anything else is eaten.
One spoonful holds neem flowers, jaggery, tamarind, raw mango, salt and chilli.
What really happens
Ugadi pachadi mixes these flavours in one dish: bitter, sweet, sour, salty, spicy and the tang of raw mango.
Families say the mix stands for the many tastes of the year ahead. Which taste stands for which feeling varies from home to home, but the idea is shared: the year will bring all of them, so begin by tasting all of them.
How we know: A festival practice described in many regional food and culture writings. The meaning is folk tradition.
The turn
We want our year, our job and our relationships to be only sweet.
Ugadi gently says: every year will have neem in it. Take the first spoon knowing that.
Three takeaways
- A full life has every taste in it.
- Expecting only sweetness leads to disappointment.
- Accepting the bitter makes the sweet sweeter.
The first spoon of the year is honest. It has neem in it.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.