How many times have you sat through a pooja and wished you were somewhere else? How many times have you performed rituals but had no clue why you were performing them? Have you had to call up your mother every time there’s a festival around the corner? If you have been through all this and more, then ‘Follow the Hindu Moon’ is an answer to your prayers! Written by Soumya Sitaraman, this is a box-set consisting of two books that cover almost every aspect of the festivals of South India. The books are in the truest sense a guide to South Indian festivals because they cover  almost every imaginable aspect of a festival. Festivals from each of the four southern states have been profiled - from Makara Sankranti, Pongal, Vinayaka Chaturthi, Deepavali, Onam and Vishu to even Maha Shivaratri, Kartikai, Bhogi and Avani Avittam.

In the first book, ‘Celebrate’, each festival has been profiled elaborately. For those who need a checklist and don’t want too much information, there is a ‘Quick View’ which tabulates all the requirements for the festival like a list of pooja items, fruits and flowers that are preferred for the festival, a menu, auspicious things to do and much more. The book then walks you through the entire festival guiding you at every stage. There are also a few shlokas and options for smaller and elaborate poojas.

For those who wish to go indepth, the second book, ‘Understand’ contains a lot of information on the Hindu cosmology and makes you understand the traditions. This book also contains over 50 recipes for festival food. It also has a section on rangolis (kolams). Details like how the food must be laid out on a banana leaf and how this varies for every state are mentioned with pictures. When one flips through the book, the immense amount of effort that has gone into creating it is evident. It is certainly a commendable effort given the minute details presented in the book, apart from the fact that the author has presented it in a more appealing way.

So when and where did she get the idea for this book? “When I was residing in the US,  I used to find it difficult to explain the tradition and understand it myself. I wanted to know the reason behind rituals and festivals. In our hectic lives, I think everyone needs to know why they are setting aside time for a ritual they don’t even connect to,” says Soumya. “Compared to any other culture, in India, the fabric of continuity is astounding. When I started my research, I began to realise this fact, I mean, if you look at our ancient texts you would see that the way a festival like Shivaratri is celebrated now, and hundreds of years ago, is still the same! Festivals were a fun way to access spirituality and religion but now the reasons have been lost and we find the same festivals tiring. The problem is that in India, we don't have a place where we can turn to that will make us proud of our culture,” she adds.

Soumya has a degree in Environmental Science and is an award winning illustrator and had no previous technical or indepth knowledge of religious texts before she started work on the book. “The book as a project took seven years. I read a lot of ancient texts, talked to priests, astrologers, grandmothers...anyone who would have more information to help me demystify rituals. I hope I was able to achieve that in the book because I think presenting rationale behind rituals is important.”

The books are elaborate and are ideal for any urban household considering the fact that while we can find a lot of information in regional language books, this book’s simplicity is endearing. Considering it is something that should be easy accessible, why has it been brought out as a coffee table book (as this makes it heavy and fairly expensive)? Soumya explains that it was more of a publishing requirement and was unavoidable with the number of photographs in the book.

On what does she think about the place of tradition in modern India, she avers, “We need to embrace it because it will help us go forward. In India, we have everything, brains, motivation but no pride in our nation. We have such a rich culture and tradition and yet we don’t talk about our culture and embrace it. Take something as simple as a Kolam (Rangoli), you require logical and spatial abilities, mathematical progression, non-linear thinking and all this is done by a simple woman in our country who may not even be well-educated. And yet we don’t appreciate what we have. If we can be proud of who we are, we will definitely be successful.”

B V Prathyusha