I couldn't help but write a post on Onam though I had decided a simple picture of a pookkalam would be enough. May be because this is the sixth consecutive Onam that I'm spending away from home and the nostalgia that creeps in every time I see or hear something remotely related to Onam or for that matter Kerala is too overpowering for me to resist. Practically my Onam always started from my school where we would have various competitions among the student houses. The next four days of vacation (my school didn't have ten days of vacation for Onam) were always spent at our ancestral home located in a sleepy beautiful village where the whole family would gather. Any flower we could get our hands on - from the precious little yellow mukkutti to the brightly colored chembarathi( shoe flower) - delicately made its way to the pookkalam over a small circular spread of cow dung which served as the base.( No, we didn't care whether it would make our hands dirty. Neither about the design which mostly was a conspicuously placed flower in the center surrounded by concentric circles.) Then there was the interesting process of making Thrikkakarappans, and we children were allowed to be just spectators as far as this was concerned. They are pyramidal structures made out of mud (and that being the reason we children were never allowed to actively participate as much as we would have liked to), and would be kept decorated with rice-flour, chembarathi flowers, and an olakkuda (an umbrella made of Palmyra leaves) in the front yard. And to finish off, a sumptuous sadya on plantain leaf - as colorful as it is tasty with a serving of payasam. Gone are those days but not the memories. My last five Onams were spent at Pilani, and that made it more special sans the Valluvandan style celebration I was so used to. I guess, at home or not, Onam will always be special - we just have to find ways to make it so. Signing off wishing everyone a wonderful and happy Onam....
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