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Pongal festival celebration of Attukal Bhagawathy Temple is very popular. Thousands of women flock to the temple to offer their prayers on the occasion and the festival is covered far and wide. This beautiful festival is already remarkable, but what made it recently trend on social media was a picture of Sudha Murthy sitting on the floor.
Sudha Murthy is the Chairperson of Infosys Foundation. She is also a reputed philanthropist, author and proud recipient of Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. She is known for being kind, humble and resilient and the recent picture, where she is seen sitting on the floor making the prasad is making the rounds because of how perfectly it captures all these qualities of hers. Sudha Murthy came for the festival and offered sarkara pongala, which is a sweet dish made with rice, coconut and gud or jaggery. As is the norm with her, she did not ask for any VIP treatment and offered the prasadam along with thousands of women who had come to celebrate the festival.
It is notable that Sudha Murthy is the wife of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy and mother-in-law of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, which along with her own high credentials, makes her a VIP. But she chose to forgo all of those advantages and visit as a normal devotee. Her simplicity is being applauded by everyone and people of the internet are calling her a true role-model for the youth. Sudha Murthy's picture, where she is sitting on the floor, preparing the pongala is a true depiction of who she is as a person – simple and down to earth.
Sarkara pongal is a dish that is offered to the Gods as prasadam. It is considered to be Holy and is completely Satvik. It is the most commonly made Naivedyam. Essentially a rice pudding, pongala is made in a new earthen pot as it is considered pure. Here is a simple recipe for the same.
