The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : A traditional welcome to `Parthiva'

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Sunday, Apr 10, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A traditional welcome to `Parthiva'

By Our Special Correspondent

The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Speaker, K.R. Suresh Reddy, and Ministers listening to the `panchanga sravanam'by Malladi Chandrasekhara Sastry in Hyderabad on Saturday. Photo: Mohd. Yousuf.

HYDERABAD, APRIL 9. It was a perfect rural setting. There was a sturdy bull chewing the dried grass along side a bullock cart.

A few feet away, a goat was tied to a post. Poultry birds were running around in the front yard of a hut, a cock was crowing now and then while an obviously contented farmer was attending to daily chores.

Neem trees adorned the open yard and some 20 feet away from the hut was the village `Ratchabanda' (a raised pedestal of stone used to settle disputes in villages) underneath a mango tree laden with raw mangoes.

All signs indicated a bounteous harvest reaped by the village.

Rural ambience

At around 9.30 a.m., villagers began flocking to the venue. No ordinary villagers these. Accompanied by a dozen of his Cabinet colleagues, the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, arrived to the mellifluous strains of vedic hymns to listen to the `Panchanga Shravanam' on the advent of "Parthiva Nama Samvatsaram," the Telugu New Year Day on Saturday.

The rural ambience replicated by the Department of Culture at Ravindra Bharati delighted the VIPs who converged on the `Ratchabanda' to listen to what the planets had in store for the State.

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