Onam-the festival of flowers,happiness,and ofcourse great food ;-)
Onam is the national festival of my homeland-Kerala,India.I have always wondered how come Onam is a ‘national’ festival,when it is celebrated us,malayalees alone????hmm..Let all people out there celebrate Onam,which has no strings of religion or caste or colour attached to it..Read more on Onam.
Though Onam is the day on which the good old king of ours,Mahabali,is supposed to visit every home and see for himself if we all are in content and peace.To me,Onam is an occassion of having lot of fun with flowers,having contests on flower carpets-Pookkalam,wearing traditional Kerala Saree,having Sadhya and lot lot more…While in college we have lot of games ..where all of us would cheer for our respective teams..I was the expert to peep into others pookalams while we made our own ,during the contest..lol..Gone are those days..gone for ever..
We would make pookalams in my home almost all ten days,starting from Atham.Me and my mother would make lot of dishes and all of us,all our helpers,my grand mom,everybody would have lunch together on banan leaf..Being an NRI,Onam is nothing but watching lot of movies in channels and drooling while flim stars had their online lunch..lol..It is boring to prepare all those dishes and eat among two people..
I wish Onam reminds all of us,the good old days during our King Mahabali,and have a look into our own lives in regard to the song we learned since childhood..
When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,
All the people had equality.
And people were joyful and merry;
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Death of the children was never even heard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no one was false in speech either.
Measures and weights were right;
No one cheated or wronged his neighbor.
When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,
All the people formed one casteless race
Happy Onam to all..God bless..
P.S :None of the images belong to me,but to the respective links provided..
@Nimmy,
I wished all mu Mallu friends Onam on the phone. Now that I am accessible to a comp (I had been travelling, without my laptop), let me also wish you a happy Onam.
What SADHYA did you have ? Being a foodie yourself, (which I assume from your blog), it must have been something YUM!!
Keep smiling. Keep posting
Thanks Milind..
lol..no Sahdya today as its Ramadan and im fasting..I have been invited for an iftar party today and i gotta go..Hope to have a great non-veg iftar cum sadhya..lol..
@Nimmy,
That’s what – I thought that in Ramadan you could have Sadhya for Iftar (however I did not account for the Gulf being behind us in time)
Anyway, have a great Non Veg Iftar cum Sadhya 🙂
May it give you food for thought, and make you keep coming out with great posts!!
Happy Onam….and a great non-veg iftar sadya 🙂
Happy Onam to you Nimmy 🙂
I think though NRIs usually celebrate it more grandly than many of us living in Kerala. Cause thats one occasion when they can gather together at one place, cook together, have fun together, lots of laughs.
But many nuclear families in Kerala just stay inside homes, maybe watch TV programs. I guess it could be different for the Bangalor-living-IT folks cause its a reason to come home to Ma and eat her food 🙂
Lol..thank you all..Onam iftar was great..Dates,fresh juice,sweet melon,mangoes,apple,pear.. chiicken puffs,beef samosa,egg cutlet,banana roll,Uzhunnu vada and some sort of semolina sweet dish in idly shape..(all home made)..Then tea..later Noolputtu,Chappathi,Killappam,Fish Ada,chilly chicken,mutton roast,King fish molly..hmm..finish…Sad my stomach was not in full swing..***sigh***
A belated Onam greetings to you…
Thanks Pradeep..Which part of the country you are from?
If Mahabali was ruling the land so well, why did he have to be removed?
If someone wanted to remove him, that was very petty and despicable of them.
And those that removed him are villains, then.
They used a very dirty trick to remove him, too. It is a tale of black villainy.
Why do Mallus then worship Vamana, the villain dwarf? Shows the slavishness of Mallus. Victims worshipping the bullies? What a spineless, pervy race!!!
Way to being casteist and racist fastreader, of the many ways of putting it, you have chosen the worst.
lol..fastreader,why are you so angry….I care least about history..Festivals are a way out to some lesiure time from crazy days..Eat,drink ,sleep and be merry on holidays,don’t be racial and frustrated..
“Why do Mallus then worship Vamana, the villain dwarf? ”
I don’t know anything about that..I never heard any temple in the name of vamana..Wasn’t the Gods themselves conspired against Mahablai bcoz he was toog ood..Pls excuse me,i don’t know ..Soomebody here maygive more information..
Welcome to my blog:)
@Nimmy,
You are TORTURING me telling me about the kind of stuff you had. SINFUL, I envy you 🙂
Anyway, I am glad you are able to enjoy all the festivals living out there.
Guess there are more Mallus than Arabs anyway – lol!! 🙂
@Milind..lol..no evil eye on my stomach pls..
I celebrate every festival,even while in india.I used to hang stars outside my home and lit it during christmas..Yo,the Imam in our masjid came to my house and said,”It is haram”..what haram??who said it is haram?I am not celebrating Birthday of jesus..I am just hanging a star bcoz i like..What danger does it impose to islam?Rather,people around feel good when muslims too become a part of their happiness…Some/most of our imams are extra conservative..
Allah is not a silly person to get offended or angry at things like these..
@Nimmy
Belated Onam wishes to you and Wish you a Happy Ramzaan 🙂
Belated Onam wishes.
Cheers,
Salil
@India UB ans Salil..Thanks..Belated wishes to you too…
Nice blog, really a cool theme too. Do u know how to prepare Onasadya and how to serve it?…. Just see our post here
http://recipes4hunger.blogspot.com/2010/03/onam-sadhya-how-to-prepare-onasadya-how.html
hello Nimmy,
i found your blog through my google search..its really nice…anyway advanced happy onam…:)