Onam is a keralite festival.
It has a great mythological story behind its celebrations and some interesting
activities involved. I am not a malayali but in my college every year during Onam we wear a traditional Onam saree and take loads of pictures
with fellow classmates and try as much as possible to make the lecturer not to
take any usual classes. So, that’s the type of celebration we have on this
festive occasion.
My day began with the saree draping session. It
was a white cotton saree and with simple golden border and small designs was
made on it using embroidery with various shades of colourful threads. With the
help of my mom and my eager enthusiasm we succeeded in the draping part until
it fell apart. My mom hates to do same work twice. She was in the verge of
becoming grumpy but still she carefully draped the saree again. I was happy
that the activity (the art of draping a saree) which sometimes takes Indian
women more than 5 minutes to forever was over for me.
Then it was time to the second challenge, the
horror of walking in a saree. I am not a regular user of sarees. So, it felt
like I was walking by wearing a burrito or a shawarma. I daily walk to bus stop
of 1km distance and it was becoming late for me to catch the right bus on time
and I had to rush. But the draped cloth was making sure I was walking as slow
as possible. Like each footstep per second. But I tried to stroll as fast as I
could and reached the bus stop. I didn’t get a seat in the bus I took. In
normal attire itself there is a 100 possible ways to get hurt while standing in
a moving bus, but to make my probability of getting hurt even more I was not wearing
my usual clothes. Thankfully I managed not getting hurt with lots of cringes
especially at the turns and speed bumps.
I got down from the bus and reached my college. Sarees
are like headphones, both need to be adjusted often. I am a bit too conscious about
revealing my body to the outer world other than myself. But turns out many girls
of my age are like that when they wear saree. We check whether we look fat or
anorexic? Is the folds aligned correctly? Is someone mentally judging us
because we did a fashion blunder? And so on. After all this, the next
challenging task for me was to reach my class which is in 5th floor.
By the time I reached 1st floor in that saree I wore half my
breakfast energy got expended.
I reached the 5th floor and saw my
classmates looking pretty and feminine in their sarees. We took some pictures
of ourselves. Then, the horror started. First hour was started with Accounts
subject. I absolutely hate anything with numbers and have a mild form of memory
loss towards anything associated with numbers like maths, cash, time, date,
etc. Only few of my classmates were present and we were half asleep when my
lecturer started her accounts lullaby. Post graduation life is a serious
business I guess. Whenever each student entered the class we were staring at
her to see how she paired it up with the blouse, what sort of accessories she
used, what make up style she did and so on. Seeing this, lecturer was staring
blankly at our faces I guess she got the idea that we were super distracted. But
lecturers always act like lecturers. She proceeded to teach and we proceeded to
sleep.
After that we were requested to attend an event
about music and dance competition in the auditorium. We all went there, saw
bunch of people sitting on the stage one with mridangam, one with violin, a few
with mike set up parallel to their faces. It was similar to katcheri set up. They
sang devotional songs. Then the dance performance started. We discussed about
their selection of songs, dance moves, their team execution and all. Then it
was time for speeches and announced about the chief guest, who was an eminent carnatic singer with many accolades. She
also spoke about her life, career path and passion. She later sang a few lines
of the Tamil song “Kaatrinile varum
geetham” as a tribute to M.S. Subbalakshmi who was also a great singer. That
song and its lyrics have a way to intoxicate its listeners.
Then again went back to our classes and started
taking photos. I was hungry and started to eat lemon rice my mom made for my
lunch. It’s funny how people can flawlessly smile to a non-animate object like camera
than to the living person next to them. It does makes sense that it captures
their memories, moments and it remains with them forever as long as they wish
to keep it. But it made me thinking millennial youth is spending more time with
their technological buddies than the actual person being with them. So, many
things around them are missed, in this process. But I was enjoying the moment to
see their funny poses, their funny (horrible) singing, Funny dancing and many
more which might not be the same if something I wish for happens.
Suddenly my Head of the department barges into
the class and asks “where is the rest of the class?” She took attendance, a
senior came and informed her something and she used a swear word (sh*t). She gave
a completely out of box punishment to the people who weren’t inside the
classroom. She told them to interview the teachers and students in the college
who are wearing an Onam saree in
terms of styling, beauty and many other ways where in reality no teacher appreciates
to be asked these questions. But they did go, interviewed and accomplished to
know that they need to take the interviewee’s photograph and do a Presentation
on it tomorrow. I was glad I was inside the classroom and away from this unpredictable
trouble.
Then, another lecturer came who always tries to
make us happy. She gave bunch of good compliments to others and said I look
completely different in a good way I guess. Later, another lecturer came who
teaches us Organisational behaviour. She is a malayali, and we made sure we don’t let her take class. We asked
her what is Onam is all about? And she
gave us this broad smile which looked sarcastic in my point of view. Then, she
made a Malayali girl in my class to
answer that question. She mentioned they don’t celebrate Onam extravagantly. She said they do this sadhya which is a festive meal served in a banana leaf with a
variety of foods served with rice, Pookalam
or flower Kolams which are done using
flower petals in different designs on the floor, and that’s all she knows. My lecturer
gave the same sarcastic smile back at her and told us about the reason and
story why they celebrate it.
The story goes on like this. There was a King named
Mahabali. My classmate pronounced it back as mahabalu (means big bear in Hindi)
and we laughed. That king was an asura but was good king. Asuras supposed to be
the villain or the evil people. But Mahabali turned out to be a genuine king. He
ruled heaven and earth. All the gods saw him as a threat and wanted to
annihilate him. Mahabali has a weakness to help anyone who asks for his help. So
lord Vishnu goes in the form of a Brahmin named Vamana and asks for a favour.
Mahabali’s guru tells him not to agree as it feels suspicious but he agrees to
help.
Vamana asks for land equal to the three paces of
his feet. Vamana grew big, First footstep was all over the earth, second
footstep was on all of heaven and there was still one territory left Mahabali
owed Vamana. Mahabali requested Vamana to keep his third step on his head as he
does not have any more land left. Vamana keeps his third feet on his head and
sends Mahabali to the underworld. But due to his genuine sincerity Vamana
grants his wish to visit his people for 10 days and these are the days which
are celebrated as Onam. Then she correlated
some organisation behaviour theories with the deities of different geographical
regions and the Onam mythology story
she mentioned. (For proper story use Wikipedia this is just a story which my
lecturer knows)
After that, same vicious circle followed, I had
to catch a bus in saree and walk as fast as possible to reach home. Surprisingly
there was no scorching sun and the weather was good. But I was eager to remove
the saree and wear my comfy clothes. Later I felt like cooking something but
whenever I cook it never turns out well. So I saw some recipes which are quick with
fewer ingredients. I got inspired and did a 2 –Ingredient dessert. I took dried
bits of coconut and was hitting it with a mortar and pestle at first to get it
into fine pieces. This usually works for spices but not for dried coconut pieces
I guess. Like I said even though I did 3 Year Degree in Food Science I am poor
at cooking but good at experimenting.
I told my mom what happened and she told me to
use a blender. I have seen her giving the blender jars for repair for using it
with certain ingredients and I was hesitant to use and spoil the Equipment. Life
is incomplete without being able to take risks I guess. So, I blended few chunks
of dried coconut pieces and added deseeded dates into it and blended again. The
dessert is finished. I usually hate the sharp sweetness of dates but the
coconut bits helps to adjust it. It tasted good until my mom suggested to add
ghee to it which suppressed the true flavours of the coconut and dates. But
still it was quick and easy dessert and my hunger was fulfilled.
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| The dessert - Date 'n' coconut stuff! |
That’s how I celebrated Onam and Happy Onam!
