ANUSHA SELVAMANI
Most Indians in Singapore celebrate Pongal at their homes.
Mrs Lalithamma Nair does it a different way.
Though the 63-year-old lives in an HDB flat in Woodlands, for the past five years she has been celebrating the South Indian harvest festival at a rented farmhouse on the outskirts of Kranji.
According to Mrs Lalithamma, The Nature Nook @ Kranji Gallop Farm Resort is her second home. She invited me to join her family’s Pongal celebrations there last Saturday.
Intrigued by the name, I took a cab to the farm, where a one-storey terrace house adorned with traditional flowers and sugarcane stalks greeted me.
Behind the house was a small plantation, a rare sight in concrete-laden Singapore. At the balcony area, an elderly woman – a family friend of Mrs Lalithamma – was making vadai.
A vibrantly-painted claypot was ready on a charcoal pit for pongal, a traditional dish of sweet rice in milk, to be cooked.
In a corner, buttermilk and koozh (porridge made from millet) were being served to guests.
The atmosphere reminded me of a village house in Tamil Nadu. To Mrs Lalithamma, the place encapsulates her love and connection with nature.
“I love this place so much, it has my whole heart,” she said. “Celebrating Pongal here is much more authentic than doing it at our house. I want the younger generation to know what it feels like to be a farmer and what the harvest festival is really like.”
Her love for nature was kindled during her childhood when she visited her grandmother’s house in Malaysia’s Negeri Sembilan.
There, she spent endless hours in the backyard, which was full of plants and herbs. She listened carefully when her grandmother explained the benefits of each herb.
Aware of the values of biodiversity, and to pursue her love for gardening and growing crops, Mrs Lalithamma rented an 8,000 sq ft plot at Kranji Gallop Farm Resort five years ago. The garden is now home to more than 80 types of herbs, fruits and vegetables.
She showed me around her backyard plantation and explained almost every crop that was growing there, from brinjal and lady’s fingers to moringa and sugarcane.
This went on until the milk in the claypot began to boil. Then she asked her friends and family members to gather around the pot.
As soon as the milk started to boil over, everyone chanted “Pongalo Pongal!” three times – the customary way of expressing gratitude to the sun god for a bountiful harvest and blessed year ahead.
Mrs Lalithamma’s eldest son Sivaprasad Pillai, 40, said Pongal celebrations at Kranji are very much close to his heart. Mrs Lalithamma has four children.
“Not everyone is lucky enough to get this organic experience,” he said. “It’s because of my mom that my siblings and relatives are able to indulge in this experience.
“My 11-month-old-baby girl is also here today. She is blessed to have taken part in this celebration.”
What followed soon after was a vegetarian lunch feast, prepared by Mrs Lalithamma’s female friend.
A wide array of dishes was served on banana leaves cut from the backyard – mango pickle, carrot raita, sambar, fried baby carrots and boiled chickpeas, to name a few. Sweet pongal rice was also an item.
Mr Gunalan Ganesan, who attended the Pongal celebration with his wife and two children, helped Mrs Lalithamma lay out the dishes. “I appreciate auntie for taking this much effort to create an authentic atmosphere for us to celebrate Pongal,” he said.
“It felt like we were celebrating the festival in a garden. My kids would have learnt about Pongal in school, but only initiatives like this can instil the culture and values of the festival in them.”
Mrs Lalithamma said: “It’s heartening to see my close friends coming all the way to the Kranji countryside.
“My initiative to raise awareness on organic farming and nature will continue. Though most of my crops were destroyed by the heavy rains over the past few weeks, I did not change anything in my plantation as I wanted to provide a raw experience to those who visit my farm.
“That also represents the hardships farmers face throughout the year, and the importance of celebrating pongal.”
Mrs Lalithamma conducts private tours for people who wish to visit her plantation. Visit https://greenupsg.com for more details.
