Memories from Maveli’s land
CHENNAI: Ancestral homes buzzing with the echoes of cousins’ laughters, the warmth of togetherness, imply a festive season — Onam. Till the 10th day of Onam, Thiruvonam, colourful flowers are shredded into even bits, verandas ornated meticulously with simple and intricate with these flowers. Each corner of Kerala has a different story of celebration but the crackling sounds of tempering, the rhythms of chopping vegetables, the aroma of payasam — these are some of the fondest memories for almost everyone. People from different parts of the city share their memories of celebrating this festival.
(Inputs from Anusree PV and Archita Raghu)
Aalapana Kumar, 3D animator
My fondest memory of Onam has been all of us walking around my grandma’s yard, wading through all the dew on the grass, figuring out what flowers to pick and what we’d need to make a pookalam. As a malayali who doesn’t really celebrate a lot of festivals, Onam is the one time I feel like somehow the stories of religion I grew up hearing is a part of my life. Onam has been a time meant for family, plucking flowers together and making pookalams and of course, the Onasadhya. There isn’t a celebration in Kerala that doesn’t involve a sadhya!
Parvathy Nayar, visual artist
For Malayalis, we have two big festivals — Vishu and Onam. The latter is a time of getting together and cooking sadhya and celebratory, festive, traditional food. My mother makes puli inji, with tamarind and ginger, which is so yummy.
We’d hover around when she was making it, and look forward to it. Now, she turns 90 and we are using her recipe this year. For Onam, there are things you associate with a festival like pookalam, buying new clothes, wearing mundu but it’s also the getting together with a family and putting on Malayalam music that’s special. I have a daughter who is turning 16 and the entire family wants to make memories with her during Onam and she looks forward to it.
The festival is a reaffirmation of familial ties, intimate in conversations and I see it as a white and gold feeling with lamps, mundus, the rice, paruppu and pachadi. It’s a glow, time of hope and plenty and I’m looking forward to the next cycle of time. Festivals are not empty rituals if you work towards holding what it means, the story of Mahabali, good governance, harvest and sharing culture of giving thanks of what we have, and celebrating earth. It is tied to who we are, where we come from in a positive way.
Madhavi Menon, retired bank officer
Having lived in Tamil Nadu all my life, though born in Kerala, I have not experienced the all out excitement of Onam celebrations, though we did do so in our own way. As children, our task was to gather the flowers available in our compound, with the neighbours generously chipping in with their own. The memory of different pookalam designs every day, supervised by our mother, lingers in my heart even today. Since we had a close family circle here, many times it was potluck lunch on Onam day. All the family getting together with the sadhyavattams, eating and enjoying ourselves — this meant lots more delicious goodies. We always had close friends dropping in for their share, too. There was plenty going around for everyone.
Adithia Sankar B, NEET faculty at Vedantu
Even though we are in Tamil Nadu, the taste of Kerala always remains with me. I celebrate Onam with a fervour that rivals their home state. The most beautiful celebration of mine lies in the pookalam, a floral carpet meticulously designed with intricate patterns. The feast, sadhya, is a culinary extravaganza featuring a variety of vegetarian dishes, including payasam, a sweet rice pudding which my mother and I make wholeheartedly getting our essence of Onathappan. The celebration often involves cultural programmmes, showcasing Kerala’s rich heritage and a sense of community that transcends geographical boundaries.
