Although they were far away from their families, a group of 45 participants from PSF Institute of Management, India, still felt at home when they celebrated the Pongal festival an MMU Cyberjaya campus recently.
The students, who attended the Global Immersion Programme by Business School MMU, woke up as early as 6 A.M to prepare for the festival.
Thai Pongal is a harvest festival of South India, particularly in the Tamil community. It is observed at the start of the month Thai according to the Tamil solar calendar, and this is typically around mid-January.
The students enjoyed the “Pongal”, which means “to boil, overflow” and refers to the traditional dish prepared from the new harvest of rice boiled in milk with jaggery (raw sugar). The overflow of milk symbolises the abundance that we welcome in our lives.
The students also added additional ingredients into the dish sweet dish, such as cardamom, raisins, Green gram (split), and cashew nuts together with coconut and ghee (clarified butter from cow milk). Later they shared the sweet dish with friends.
