HOUSTON, TEXAS, September 1, 2007: Hindus of Greater Houston will host a citywide Janmashtami celebration on Saturday, September 8, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, that will include dance, art and food. The birth of Lord Krishna, one of the most recognized and celebrated incarnations of the Hindu protector God Vishnu, is a holiday observed by many Hindus. Janmashtami–or Gokulashtami in Tamil–falls on September 4 this year. How it is marked depends on the Hindu tradition they follow. “People do it in different ways,” says Latha Ramdas, raised in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “I do what my parents taught me do do.” That includes an elaborate spread of sweet and savory snacks: vella seedai, bite-size balls made of rice flour and lightly sweetened with jaggery; salt seedai, similar to the vella but smaller and savory; murukku and tenkuzhal, which look like funnel cakes but are crunchy and savory; pal payasam, a rice pudding; puli aval, a tangy, spicy dish made from rice flakes; thattai, a fried cracker; and rava kesari, a dense, spongy cake.
Ramdas, a scientist at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and her husband Jay, have three teenagers: Divya, 19; Deepa, 17; and Ashwin, 14. Every day her mother-in law, Tulasi Jayaram, who lives with the family, uses rice flour to draw elaborate, geometric patterns called kolams outside the front door and inside the prayer room. For the holidays, Ramdas also uses her hands to make the sweet-looking “baby footprints” that welcome Krishna into their home. The kolams also are meant to feed the ants and other little critters, Ramdas adds–a way to share one’s bounty and exist harmoniously. She prays in the morning and evening. “We enjoy making the food dishes, decorating the house with kolam, flowers, doing the prayers, sharing everything with family and friends,” Ramdas says. “I hope that my children will adopt some of these traditions… to keep up with our culture.” For recipes for Salt Seedai, Puli Aval, Pal Payasam and Rava Kesari click on URL above.