Bathukamma, Telangana's nine-day floral festival during post-monsoon Navratri, means "Mother of Life" from Telugu "bathuku" (life) and "amma" (mother). Women stack wildflowers like tangedu into tiered arrangements, circling them to sing and dance, honouring Goddess Gauri for health, prosperity and nature's bounty. It builds bonds and pride. At school, we recreate this with class-made stacks and joyful gatherings.

On‑campus celebration (day before the festival)

On the eve of Bathukamma, the campus shifts into festive mode as students and teachers come dressed in traditional attire, ready for a day that feels part cultural class, part family gathering. Colors, flowers and familiar Telangana songs turn the school ground into a living slice of the state’s heritage.​

In each classroom, groups of girls sit together to design their own Bathukammas, carefully layering seasonal flowers into neat, tapering stacks.
By the afternoon, every section arrives at the ground, each group proudly carrying the floral arrangements they have created with their classmates and teachers.​

Gathering and songs

All the Bathukammas are then set down in the centre of the school ground, forming a bright ring of flowers that immediately draws everyone in.​
Students and teachers spread out around this circle, join hands in smaller groups and begin to move in rhythm, clapping and turning as they sing familiar Bathukamma songs.​

The mood is relaxed and joyful—there is laughter when someone misses a step, gentle teasing between friends, and that quiet pride teachers feel when they watch their students carry a tradition so naturally.​
For many of the younger children, this is their first memory of seeing Bathukamma not just as “something elders do at home”, but as a celebration they can touch, build, dance around and make their own.

Why this matters at school

By celebrating Bathukamma in school, children experience Telangana culture not as a chapter in a textbook but as something they sing, arrange and share together.
They learn to recognise local flowers, understand why we thank the earth and the goddess after the rains, and see how a festival can honour both nature and the women who nurture life around them.

The circle around the Bathukammas naturally breaks usual classroom boundaries—students across sections, teachers and support staff all stand at the same level, moving to the same rhythm.​
In that shared space, sisterhood is not a slogan; it is simply the way girls look out for each other, adjust a dupatta, pass on a handful of flowers, or pull a shy friend into the song