Onam is round the corner. Pookalam, onam saris, jasmine flowers, onappaattu, onakkalikal and sadya are on a loop on Insta reels. Between the festivities, let us swiftly glide across K Sreekumar’s poem from 2020 titled Hook, online and sinker. The poet, who was a teacher in several schools across India, took to writing after retirement.
Throw this plastic banana leaf over there, begins the speaker in an abrupt, dramatic monologue. The plasticity of the leaf is followed by images of “the broken swing” and “rotten jasmine”.
Zooming on “a big man on the small screen” who is singing “off key”. The poet suggests that Onam has become more of a show, than being a part of our social life. Now it is a season which demands us to “keep the mobile charged, screen unlocked”. Who knows, ‘grandparents might drop in, uninvited’! The line subtly suggests the e-Onam gatherings via WhatsApp and Zoom, which grew popular during the lockdown days, and is still relevant and convenient.
It is more about how you present the tradition, rather than living the spirit. So, the speaker in the poem asks the listener to take the left-over payasam to the neighbours and not to forget to “bring back the vessels”.
The persona then returns to the phone. He finds it bulging with ‘starched cotton obesity’ maybe with the overcrowded Onam photos, memes and wishes. Currently, obesity is not an issue for the humans who lick their fingers after sumptuous sadyas alone, but also for the gadgets in their pockets and purses.
You may remove the Pookkalam now
Wash it, wrap it up and store it.
These lines underline the contemporary artificiality of the season, with which the poem began. The speaker assures someone on the phone that he would call back the same day.
It is a good thing Onam is here once a year.
The poem shows the transition of the times, while not entirely cancelling out the spirit of Onam. Hooked online, but never forgetting the times! Anyway, online or offline, every Malayali has only one mood now- the Onam mood!
Read the poem
@samyuktapoetry.com
(The writer is a poet,
translator and assistant professor of English at BCM College, Kottayam)