Above: The must-have Onam "poo-kalem"
We associate a lot of our happy things with the past: When we are happy we keep referring to phrases like " when I was younger", "it used to be", "Long time back", "I remember", "those days". I think its important for us to keep reliving the good times and rejuvenate ourselves.
Here is one such thing:
Onam
A festival celebrated by Keralites which signifies prosperity and peace; without religious or caste barriers. The legend(long one cut short) is that King Mahabali, who was an exceptional ruler who brought peace and prosperity to the state, had an encounter with Vamana (who was infact Lord Vishnu in disguise) and was sent underground (literally). But getting to know the real side of Mahabali and what a sweet chap he was, the Lord granted him a wish. And being the people's man and with his love for Kerala, he asked that he be allowed to visit Kerala once a year to see his beloved land and people. So the reutrn of the great King each year is celebrated as Onam, lasting some ten days, by the King's people.
I remember, when I was younger, Onam was such a delight. It used to be the time of union of all family members from all over the world and all cousins. Those days were always something to look forward to. "Onam holidays". And a finale with the "onam sadhya". It has been many years since I have had such an Onam.
Anyway, this year, I decided to have a special Onam and refresh all the memories, than keep referring to the past. So we are having an Onam sadhya, with all family and friends, in the "typical" Kerala style banana-leaf plate and veggie cuisine.
But I could not forget my beloved bloggers from all over the world :) So heres to all the wonderful blogpals I have:
Happy Onam!
24 comments:
Happy Onam M !!!! :)
Wish you health, wealth, wine, women and plenty of songs in your heart and on your lips for the rest of your life! And a DSLR too!!!!
:)
p.s that's a lovely Pookolam, did you make it? We are having the traditional do too, like everyear, thought I will sneak in an see the comments on my blog and saw that you had posted. Have fun! :)
MC, Happy Onam! Lovely athapookalam and lovely post! And the thought of that yummy onam sadya .....even lovelier. :)
Aah...it is so nice to sit back and remember the good ol' times and onam gettogethers with family and friends. Did you play Kuttiyum kolum and some other onam games? :)Oonjal kettiyo? Onam is such a wonderful, feel good festival isn't it. :)
I also remember, going in the evening to see the "lights" with my cousins when I was a kid. That was so much fun too, getting bangles, balloons and icecream from the street side vendors. Oh this post has brought back a lot of fond memories. :) Thank you, MC.
Happy thiruvonam! :)
@ silverine - happy onam dear..
ok thats such a lovely wish for me..a bit confusing too..how about:
health, wealth and songs for the heart, and wine and women on the lips? and DSLR..hmm..hihi..i will join you for the bird-watching for now.
no the pookalam was done at work by people there. it looked great.
hope you had a great day.
@ quills - thank you soooo much dear quills :)yeah onam for some reason brings back lot of childhood memories all the time. its like your bday..with time you think more of the past than present!
hihi..the "lights". i remember it as the "illooominashen".dunno if they still exist..or maybe the government decided to cut back on electricity bills this time.
glad you could cherish the good ol memories. next time come over for some special sadhya :)
@ alex - to you too alex..hope you had a good day.
First Wish you and your family a very Happy Onam!! I was here reading your post, and bingo I see a comment from you on mine :)
The pookolam is so lovely, we had done something similar in Diwali last year, and duh! we called it flowers rangoli :D
Though I must admit this one is brilliant, ours was just about ok :)
hey dear happy onam ... the first time I celebrated onam was in MBA college.. and Iremember decorating the floor till 4 am in the morning with the keralites ..and we also had the traditional sandhya ... served to us by the mallus dressed in white lungis and white sarees..ofcourse the major fun was to tease all the guys in their short lungis ..1 st abt their legs and second when they sat dwon to serve.. he he it was such fun ..
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!Can I steal it for my next year's pookalem???
This is soooooooooooooooooooooooo beautiful!!I haven't come across such a pretty one on the net yet
wokay, your wish is my command...me is rephrasing my Onam wishes for you :)
"health, wealth and songs for the heart, and plenty of wine and women on the lips and a DSLR to record all the wonderful moments in your life"
Amen
I wish you a very happy Onam. And everything you want H,W,W,W, etc... :-)
@ kusum - flowers rangoli? really? i thought that was something to eat :)
yeah it looked great. it took almost 8 hours to get that done apparently.
@ shruti - hey..thanks so much shruti! your description of the "sadhya" sounded really traditional especially after you mentioned about the guys! lol..man..
@ maya - whoa man! :) glad you liked it..your wowwww extended right into my blog template and it has thrown it out of gear. but thanks for the compliments. hmm..about stealing the design..i will try and get the required IPRs.
@ silverine - lol..that was hilarious..i am developing a DSLR rash!allergy!
@ alexis - thanks al. wish you the same! :)
Heheheh, no one knew what to call it. So I decided flower rangoli has to be it :D
And our's took some 5 hours, though we borrowed tools from our neighbour who was doing his diploma in interior decoration. I mean none of us knew how to do it, so I decided drawing a outline and then filling up the flowers will be the best way.
I realised that was wrong, but hey, no one came with a better idea, so we used the T-scale, drew the design and filled it with flowers :D
Happy Onam to you and your family..
Nice koolam. I must try this pookolam next time.. I have only tried the flour and rice koolams :)
Happy Onam to you and your family! and this "Pookolam" as its called is really beautiful and as Kusum said we too have Rangoli at Diwali here. We did that at work once in a competition and had won on that. And last year at home it turned just okay. BTW this one is really adorable and awesome :)
hey the pookalam looks really good...
i missed onasadya with my parents and brother, for the first time in my life.....
felt so sad and had to be satisfied with the food in our cafeteria.......thiruvonam wasn't so ordinary for me before, as it was this year....
any way belated onam wishes to you and hope u had a nice time.....
take care...:)
belated happy onam.. hope u had a gret time...
Hey happy Onam! Nice rangoli btw.
Belated hi sahi
Happy Onam
And dude for the nth time
PUHLEEZ change the settings on ur camera. The date line just doesnt make the cut!!!!!
Nice Post and pics... And quite like you I had a wonderful Onam this year too after a loong gap...
And a very belated Happy Onam !!! ;)
beautiful Rangoli!
MOGAMBO!
hope u had a great onam too.. :)
happy onam
Niraparayum, Nilavilakkum..Oru pidi Thumba poovum..manassil orayiram snehavum aayi Onam varavayi..ee ponnonathil snehoshmalmaya Onam aashamsakal.
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