Now that's how Onam should be!

Onam is one of the most important festivals of Kerala and it is celebrated by every Keralite irrespective of religion, caste or creed in honour of the return of the mythical king Mahabali every year on this day to see his subjects leading prosperous lives.

Onam 2016 Selfie

This Thiruvonam (main day of Onam), I was dressed in traditional Kerala sari with that red & green necklace and matching jhumkas which I think every Malayalee girl would possess.  As I was waiting for my friend I reminisced about my Onam celebrations of old.

From when I could remember, we had the same type of celebrations - I would don a new dress / sari with jasmine flowers on my hair and go over to my bestie’ house for the mouth-watering traditional “Sadya” (meal) that her Mom would have prepared but not before I had a chance to sample all the goodies that came from every Keralite household in my society.

The traditional “pookolam” (floral rangoli) would be up at the entrance of almost every household. The doors would lay open and you could just enjoy the aroma of the same 20+ dishes being prepared in a very typical way as was the culture in that part of Kerala to which the household belonged.

I would have at least 5 invites so I would spend different parts of the two days – “Uttaradam” (Onam eve) & Thiruvonam, sampling variations of the same 20+ dishes. One of my besties who hails from Thallasery had even non-vegetarian dishes on the menu as was the culture in that northern part of Kerala. After 2 days of feasting, I would look and feel like a beached whale … albeit content.

If I was in Kerala, all the members of the family would have gather together and every nuclear household would contribute one dish or all the members would join to prepare the traditional dishes irrespective of gender and age. All members would have some role to play. At the junction, we could see women performing the traditional Kaikottikalli (traditional dance) and swinging on those makeshift floral swings. If you were celebrating in Thrissur, you could go to watch the Pulli kalli (trained performers in leopard costumes dance to the beats of instruments).

Typical Onam Celebrations. Pic Credit: Google & Whatsapp

The Aranmula boat race would be broadcasted on some TV channel and everyone would cheer as if your own family member were on one of the boats.

Not to forget was watching all the newly released movies aired on different TV channels. When you are watching movies with all your friends / cousins while feasting on payasam, banana chips and “sarkara uperi”, you are not even affected too much by the 100+ ads in between.

Things have changed in this day and age where almost everything is ‘automatically ordered’.

This Uttaradam, I was reminded that I had to be at my friend’ place at 12:30 p.m. or so. Obviously, I was curious because I would have loved to help her dish up the traditional Onam fare. I was in for a surprise because every dish in that Sadya and the banana leaf in which it was to be eaten would be provided by the caterer. All I had to do was “look gorgeous”! Oh, and the “sadya” was really good but somewhere in my mind, I had that slight maybe irrational discontent that it was not “made at home”.

Anyway, that vanished as I reached my bestie’ place on Thiruvonam. Her pookolam graced the entrance; it was nothing that you would go wow on but the very fact that she who did not do such things, had actually taken the effort... made me go Wowww bestie! Her Mom was in residence… it had been quite a while since I had the Sadya prepared by her Mom for Onam. Every dish had that distinctive taste that I had acquired over the last 30 years and hence could recall quite vividly. To enjoy every morsel of every course, I was careful to reduce portion of rice per course. So, I could take several helpings too. I was once again a contented beached whale as I watched bits & parts of the latest movies. I felt as if I had got into my own time capsule & taken a blast to the past and back.

Now that is how my ideal Onam should be! Hope you had a special one too.

Happy Onam!