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Bevu-Bella

Just a day before Ugadi, I remembered the conversation I had with my brother a few years ago. As you might know, we prepare Bevu-Bella on Ugadi day (Bevu means neem and Bella means jaggery) and its significance is that life is a mixture of joys and sorrows and we should accept both in the right spirit.

We had heard this explanation from childhood, so we thought of giving some new dimensions to this. Here are a few we came up with.
1) If you have eaten Bevu-Bella, you would know that jaggery gets dissolved instantly while the taste of neem lasts on your tongue for a long time. This denotes that joy is short lived and the bitterness or sorrow stays on with us for a long time.
2) Before eating Bevu-Bella, we get mentally prepared for the bitterness of the neem (and totally forget that there is also jaggery with it) This is how we look at life, don't we? Always scared of the bad things, apprehensive about the future, fear of losing - that we don't even realize that there were so many happy moments we let go by.
3) I wonder why it is named as Bevu-Bella and not Bella-Bevu. Is it the importance given to the sorrows? Or is it that we start with sorrows and end with joy? Don't know, but a good topic to think over!
4) Can your face be ever pleasing when you are eating Bevu-Bella? I have hardly seen any! That shows that we can hardly express our joys as strongly as we could express our griefs or bitterness. I failed to recollect any instance where I had expressed my joy with great intensity for a very long duration, but there have been many cases where I went on and on sulking, cribbing, complaining...

I am sure there must be many more explanations. Do you know any?
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Comments

krupa said…
The significance is thus (acc to me):
life is like an empty holder.You add either joys or sorrows by your actions.whatever it is..you have to reap the results of your actions.You put in things which make you happy (bella) or you add things which make you miserabe (beevu).So the trick is to add a little of bevu and more of bella.
But a little of bevu is needed as sorrow is needed to give depth to your understanding and also too much bella will make you puke :)
March 20, 2007 11:43 PM
Vedu Joshi said…
bevu-ella aagbaardu anta bella serisi bevu-Bella maaDidaare ansutte ;)

Another view of bevu can be that even though it tastes bad, it is good for your overall health. Similarly, your problems will lead to a better you :)

About your item 4, bevu bella tindu oLLe maataaDu antiddru. Andre, even though you taste sweet and bitter, you should be sweet to others.

Vedu
March 23, 2007 10:12 AM
rekha said…
that is true ,bevu remains longer than bella.man tastes somuch bitterness in the hope of getting a little bella!!!
March 31, 2007 12:00 AM
Anonymous said…
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January 03, 2010 4:02 AM
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