Sri Sarvari Samvasaram, the Telugu New Year, was celebrated sans any big social gathering in south coastal Andhra region in view of the lockdown in force to prevent the spread of the dreaded coronavirus.
However, the relaxation of the lockdown in the morning hours proved counter-productive in ensuring social distancing as a large number of people jostled with each other to buy essential commodities from the new vegetable market in Ongole.
In Nellore, all the arterial road junctions, including the RTC Bus Stand Centre, VRC centre, Gandhi Bomma centre, were deserted by 9.00 a.m. as people settled down to celebrate the festival in the confines of their homes. With the restrictions in place, people did not visit temples too.
Taking all precautions, girls plucked raw mangoes from the garden in the backyard to prepare the special ‘Ugadi Pachchadi’ with sweet, sour,salt, pungent, spice and bitter taste to imbibe the right attitude to face the rough and tumble of life with equanimity.
The customary almanac reading was done away with, in temples including Chennakesavaswamy temple and Ayyappa temple in Ongole, which closed down early in the day after performance of customary rituals by priests.
Astrological predictions for the new year, live-streaming on the social media and television channels, offered a solace to people. Vedic priest Matampalli Dakshinamurthy appealed to people to not visit any temple until the restrictions were eased.
Prakasam police erected barricades on the arterial roads including, Trunk road, Kurnool road, Anjaiah road and allowed only those persons with medical emergency or other pressing engagements to commute.
