From flying kites, to eating sweets; Navin Prabhakar, Rewati Limaye and Ranndeep R Rai share their Makar Sankranti memories!

Makar Sankranti is one of the most popular festivals of the country and is celebrated with much fervour. These celebrities talk of the significance of the festival in their lives, their memories and plans for this year.

Navin Prabhakar who was recently seen in the Marathi movie, “Aapdi Thaapdi” says, ” Festivals are the best days as they are filled with happy moments and opportunities to create memories. When we were kids, celebrations were so important for us because many guests and seniors of the family used to give us gifts. Those memories mean festivals for us. You are always creating memories for our families, for your classmates, your office mates, your close ones and your house help too. Sweets, jalebi fafda with freinds are memories now, they all are way out of reach. Now, responsibilities, priorities are not allowing everyone to spend time with close ones. I remember how preparations for Makar Sankranti used to start three months earlier, the sky used to become colourful with kites and on Makar Sankranti, we used to fly kites from 10am to 8 pm. However, lust, anger, greed, attachment, and jealousy are now five unwelcome spirits that have made a home inside of us. Make their kites and fly them above in the positive sky, and experience the true joy of a holiday, is what I would advise.”

Rewati Limaye who is seen in Arjun Kapoor starrer Kuttey says, “We celebrate Makar Sankranti at home and, like any Maharashtrian household, we make tilgul and visit each other. We visit friends, relatives and it is a very joyous day because you get to meet everybody. For me, for any kind of festival, I always have good memories of food because I’m a big foodie and, even in our house, each festival is marked by some specific dish that you make on that day. One memory I would like to share is, every Makar Sankranti, my grandmother used to make Gud Tori which is essentially a roti that you make with jaggery in it and it was a special day because the whole year I used to wait for her to make that because she used to make it only on Makar Sankranti. She used to make so many of them that all the kids in our building used to come home and eat together and with generous amount of Ghee and I still make it even now on Makar Sankranti we will make. “

Ranndeep R Rai who was recently seen in the TV show Meet shares, “This festival is special because my brother’s birthday is on 14th January. So there used to be a celebration every year. We do Pooja in the morning and Party at night. When I was in my hometown Jhansi, we used to fly kites but in Bombay I have hardly done that because the lifestyle of Bombay is quite different. It’s more of Lohri and I have attended it a few times. I remember bathing with til on Makar Sankranti as soon as we woke up. It is considered auspicious. It was a rule that we used to follow and we still follow it. And later after the shower, having til. I remember we were not allowed to eat anything before that. When I think of it, it was fun. Til ke laddoo and Gachak are my favourite sweets and only like it during Makar sankranti.”