Onam is not just a harvest festival, then what is it?....its a festival of all thats good, radiating joy, happiness, togetherness. In kerala, no other festival would bring thousands of people and families out on the streets shopping, walking, enjoying the festive air, congregating in melas and where trade fairs are held. Iam yet to see a festival, where over 25 to 30 varities of vegetarian dishes including sweet, sour, hot dishes are are served, that too on plantain leaves. Yes its the Ona Sadya which every malayalee looks forward to during Onam. Its a fun filled time for children. They are excited about their new clothes and joyously participate in arranging flower decors in their porch or in the front yard of their homes or in the lobbies of high rise buildings.
I once made the mistake of asking my servant while I lived in Kuwait, 'so would you be coming tomorrow?' And she shot back, 'what are you saying Mole, no one works on Tiruvonam'. I have never asked this question again to anyone, but yes, the malayalee office goers have to work on Tiruvonam in Gulf and other places abroad as it isnt an international holiday, nor is it a national holiday in any foreign country. Ofcourse they could opt to take a day off from the accumulated annual holiday. And if possible, a lot many did just that. Onam is as exciting to me even today as it was when I was a child and visited my grandmother during my holidays. As my grandmother lived in a joint family with a huge amount of members, I found it absolutely fun and exiciting arranging attapookalams with lots of children around my age. We played games and fought and made up and competed with our best outfits and fished for compliments. I would squat on the ground with others while we were served by grandmother on plaintain leaves. I hardly was aware of the commendable work the ladies of our joint familydid preparing sadya which was indeed not an easy task. They spent hours in the kitchen and I would pop in and out at times looking for goodies to eat. My granny had jars of goodies in a special cupboard where my hands never failed to reach out to. If someone were to ask me, if I've seen God, I would probably not reply in affirmative, but I would relate all thats Godly and godliness to two wonderful human beings, my grandparents. It was after my marriage that I actually started to prepare full fledge sadyas every year and realized the effort involved, which is actually and purely labour of love.
I learnt the art of giving and importance of sharing from my grandparents. They taught me the importance of love and how to value others around us. Most of the important lessons of our life are not learnt in classrooms or what is repeatedly told to us umpteen times by our parents. We learn from what we see and observe. We live by example. What and how we choose to do things are so important. Our children are observing us and learning by examples we set. We are constantly passing messages to them by our actions. Most importantly my grandparents taught me that one must me grateful for all that we have. Every Onam I spent with my grandmother was an opportunity to observe and learn life's important teachings.
Let me take my readers on a short journey to Onam in Ernakulam. My children and I had the good fortune to enjoy the spirit of Onam in Ernakulam the last 3 days. The Hindu had held an Attapookalam competition in the TDM Hall and it was a visual treat and there were such inticrate and elaborate and even complicated geometrical designs, all very painstakingly done. The same was held in Trivandrum as well. We attended an Anthurium exhibition. The anthuriums were in massive sizes and myriad of colours like chocolate brown, strawberry pink and mexican chilli red and so on. They were arranged so beautifully. At night, my son and I walked for about 45 minutes covering a huge mela or trade fair held just opposite the hotel we stayed in Durbar Hall road. It felt nice to be amidst a large crowd, people you don't know but yet, all congregated and moving about in the Mela because it's Onam. Observing the people, I felt, happiness, smiles and joy radiating in the air. Young, elderly and children cherished hot 'Mulagu Bhaji' (chillies fried in gram flour batter) and a majority were on a shopping free. Boghatty palace had held a wonderful fashion show 2 days ago. Hotel BTH had a grand Ona Sadya and I was pleasantly surprised to see hundreds of people flocking to have the sadya with beautiful classical music in the background. We roamed the M.G. road with shops attracting customers of sorts. My daughter was surprised at the beautiful jewellery collection at the D'Damas showroom in M.G. road. I took her there, as personally I admire the collection they have, be it in Gulf or in India. Their best collection are from Italy, Bahrain, Dubai and Singapore. A visit to Fabs in Ravipuram is a must. They have a great collection of fabrics and ready made outfits of both soft and sensual colours that are so very attractive. Their home linens, sheets, cushion covers, accessories are quite a collection. The best cakes and coffee are served in Coco Tree near Avenue Regent. I must give equal importance to the Barrista in BayPride Mall which does serve wonderful coffee. The shopping in Ernakulam is fantastic that suits every pocket, with endless variety and choices. One shop had a well decorated elephant, swinging its tail and chewing away sugarcane! Okay, Iam not promoting commercialization, but it does exist and its perfectly up to a person how he wishes to celebrate, as ultimately Onam should only bring fond memories when you think about it.
We returned in time for our quiet yet pleasant Tiruvonam back in Trivandrum. I made sure there was still some space left in my stomach after the sadya and 4 types of payasam. I slept like a log catchin up on all the lost sleep and woke up rejuvenated. Trivandrum continues to celebrate Onam for the next few days and there are lots of great programmes lined up in Chandrashekar Nair stadium and Nishagandi in Kannakunnu palace grounds and Musical programmes in Poojapura Maidan where thousands of people come each year to watch the shows. Various residents assocations and colleges hold games, picnics, onam programmes like singing, dancing, vadam velli (tug of war) and uri adi (breaking pot by a blind folded person, whilst suspended from a rope dangling to and fro). Certain temples hold their own special musical programmes as well.
What a beautiful festival indeed! Onam always a festival of Joy!
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