Yet another Onam has passed by. Onam is nostalgic to every Malayali, but it is not exactly what has been described in the Onam specials of magazines and newspapers. Not at least for me. I never heard a “pooviLi” in my childhood. I haven’t gone collecting flowers from the neighborhood either (though my elder brothers did). I have never seen any woman singing and dancing to the tunes of “thiruvaathirakkaLi“. But I remember waking up early in the morning of the thiruvONam day, to put a “pookkaLam” (floral carpet), which would have more leafs than flowers.
As time passed by and collecting flowers became very difficult and the price of the flowers in the market shot up, we had to resort to pookkaLams made with salt. We would mix salt with different color powders and put the “salt-kaLam” in the courtyard. My second brother, who left this world 12 years ago and was an excellent artist, would draw the kalam and we younger ones helped in mixing the color powder with the salt. To our pride, people came to see this salt-kaLam than the floral carpets in the rich houses of the neighborhood, because of the artistic mastery of my brother.
The kaLam would be finished by 7 or 8 in the morning and then came our time for bath and then playing music. The wait for Sadya came next. I also have memories of going to the neighbor’s house to watch movies. The TV channels were not so plenty like in these days and there were not many programs on Doordarshan. But the neighbor used to play video cassettes of popular Malayalam movies and we children used to go watch them. So Onam was about watching movies too.
What I like the best about Onam? It is neither the pookkaLam, nor the Sadya. It is the time when the family comes together. My sisters, their kids and my brother came home for Onam and they are staying in for a couple of days. We talk, make fun of each other and the chat sessions go as longer as the next day morning. It is this togetherness that I love about Onam. And I hope and pray that this togetherness lasts forever.
Hope you all had/having a wonderful time during this year’s Onam.