One day before Onam
Onam is the biggest festival of Kerala. But, there is a lot more to Onam than being just a festival. Onam reflects the faith of the people of Kerala; A belief in their legendary past, religion and power of worship. It shows the high spirit of the people who go out of the way to celebrate the festival in the prescribed manner and a grand fashion.
And some associates showed the same high spirit that send them out of the way to organise a beautiful 'Pookallam' (Flower Carpet) in front of the ODC. They are:
The preparations for organising this festival at the ODC had started some days back. And the plans were:
1. Laying the 'Pookallam' (Flower Carpet) in front of the ODC.
2. Providing Banana Chips or 'Upperi' as we call in Kerala.
3. And the best, Payasam to all.
All the plans were finalised, the type of payasam decided, responsibility deligated and at last I was free. Not exactly free, as the responsibility of drawing the structure of the 'Pookallam' rested on me. I asked Rohith to get big courier envelopes from the despatch. The idea was to make a big canvas by sticking all of them together and then draw on that canvas. This would avoid the need to draw it directly on the floor. We had 2 designs in mind. Initially we had decided to go for the easier one as none of them knew that I know how to draw. But, I took it as a challenge and went for the difficult one. Shilpa, Teena, Vaishnavee and Rohith helped to draw the design on the canvas. Once the design was done, I cut off the edges of the canvas. My job for the day was done.
The responsibility of buying the flowers were given to Mithun and Vibu. They went to Marthahalli and Madivala to buy all the flowers that we had decided to buy. The plan was to pluck the petals in the night so that it will be easier to start off with the 'Pookallam' in the morning. As an incentive for driving to far off places and carrying almost 12 kilograms of flowers, I thought I'll cook chicken for dinner. And I'd asked them to buy 'Parathas' from a Mallu restaurant as well. By 20:00 P.M they reached my house. The chicken was not yet ready. Both of them changed cloths and showered before the long night ahead of them. I served them the best Chicken curry that I'd made in my life time and both of them were very happy as it was indeed very tasty.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006, 02:00 A.M
Onam - Kerala New Year
We were done with plucking flowers for the night. But still, there were more than 4 kilograms of flowers yet to be plucked. All the three of us were very tired that we reached a unanimous decision that we'll retire for the day. And thus we slept.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006, 05:15 A.M
Vibu and his alarm
I was at onsite and it is the last day of the component testing to be done and I was supposed to provide support at onsite. I had just woke up and getting ready for office. Suddenly my phone started ringing. I picked up the phone, but still it was ringing. It was ringing and ringing and ringing and then I woke up to find that it was Vibu's stupid mobile that was disturbing my good sleep and better dream. Vibu had already woke up and had just got out of the bath. I woke up Mithun and we got ready in haste and left for office.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006, 06:00 A.M
'Pookallam' - The Flower Carpet
Rohith and Ruban reached office just behind us. They were supposed to bring the oil, lamp and the 'Thiri'. As prompt as they could be, they had arranged for everything. Rohith was given the responsibility for laying the flowers properly on the design. Mithun and Me went behind the GE campus to get the green leaves for using it in the flower carpet design. By the time, we reached the ODC, Rohith had started to lay the flowers over the design. I was not too keen to put the flowers as I was not confident whether I would be able to do it properly.Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006, 07:00 A.M
Here comes the stars
'Onakodi' is the saree for this occasion for the ladies. They are saree's which are off white in color and with a golden border. By 7:00 A.M stars of the show came neatly attired themselves in typical Kerala style. Teena and Shilpa, both of them were looking stunningly beautiful in the Kerala style 'Onakodi'. But we couldn't let anything distract our work, so we included them in laying the flowers. I was feeling tense that we may not finish it before 08:00 A.M and started pushing Rohith for doing it faster. But Rohith took his own time and kept instructing Vibu, Mithun, Ruban, Shilpa and Teena while they were laying the flowers at the correct places. And to my surprise, he finished just before time.When the other associates came in that day, they were all so happy at seeing the work that we had done and were impressed by the design and the flowers put perfectly, well, almost perfectly. We took many photos that day of the 'Pookallam' and others as well.
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2006, 11:00 A.M
We served 'Payasam' for all
As we had planned, Shameem had ordered for 9 liters of payasam at a restaurant near his house. We left the ODC at 11:00 A.M in Shameem's car. On the way, I understood that Shameem has started adapting to the traffic in Bangalore. We reached the restaurant by 11:20 A.M and we collected the 'Pallada Payasam' and come to office. We took the 'Payasam' to the cafeteria and poured it equally into plastic glasses. Mithun and Vibu called everyone from the ODC to the cafeteria. Once everyone had their share and more of the 'Payasam' and chips 'Uperi' they were asking for more. But alas, we made a wrong assessment of the appitite of the people at the ODC. While everyone went back, we cleaned the tables and Onam was over.
But at the end of it all, everyone was happy and I was feeling very happy and satisfied. We had planned for having a similar celebration at the ODC the previous year too, but couldn't do it because of the unfortunate demise of 2 associates in our building. But even this time, this wouldn't have happened without the support of:1. Mithun, driving and negotiating skills.
2. Vibu, carrying the flowers and plucking the maximum amount of flowers.
3. Naveena, involved in planning and finalising.
4. Ruban, Lamp arrangement.
5. Shameem, 'Payasam' arrangement.
6. Rohith, laying the flowers in a very professional manner.
7. Shilpa, involved planning and laying the flowers in the 'Pookallam' and for looking beautiful.
8. Teena, involved planning and laying the flowers in the 'Pookallam' and for looking beautiful.
9. Me (Saju), Drawing the design.
