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The Hindu : Bangalore celebrates the groundnut festival or Kadlekai Parishe in December. You may call it a nutty idea, or whatever, and even dismiss it as peanuts. Yet, the groundnut festival is a fabled fair, and is one of the Garden City’s oldest and best known festivals.Celebrated during the last week of the of Karthika season according to the traditional calendar, this year it is being celebrated over two days — December 3 and 4. . On this day groundnut mounds rise up in the compound of the Bull Temple, Dodda Ganapathi Shrine and Bugle Rock in Basavanagudi area.In the beginning, the fair was purely a local affair with farmers offering their harvest to the bull deity, to ensure good yields in future. Today the fair has grown, with no geographical restrictions. That way, in these days of international trade expositions, it is heartening that a fair celebrating the humble groundnut still draws thousands of people. Sunil Kumar. S, the head priest of the Bull Temple says that every year the groundnut fair is growing more popular with people from all over Bangalore, Kolar, Malur and even Tamil Nadu visiting the two-day fair. There is a practice of putting a garland made out of groundnuts for the deity on the last day of Karthika month.Chinnaswamy from Hosur is a regular participant. This year he has brought 10 gunny bags of nuts and expects to sell all of it in two days.Ramaswamy from Dharmapuri has been coming to this fair for the last 40 years and he has brought about 30 bags of his produce, which he sells at Rs. 15 a measure.The surroundings of the temple and nearby roads wear a festive look, as rows of groundnut traders, jaggery, toys, curios, religious books, trinkets, balloons, and puffed rice are sold; merry-go-rounds and other shops spring up, adding to the festive look. People relish the nuts with jaggery,…More