Onam- reloaded

I have written about my famiy's die hard , uncontain-able enthusiasm when it comes to unabashed display of Mallu-ness here. And when it comes to being the keepers/ promoters/ followers/ patrons of the traditions, culture, customs of the great Mal- land, we would proudly stand united more strongly than volunteers of Chipko movement could ever imagine.

This Sunday, was the the day of the much awaited communal- Onam celebration day. What does that mean? It means the Mallus from 1st block of, the 2nd lane of, the south- western part of Banaglore decided to get together and celebrate Onam. Again. So what if the real Onam has actually happened, celebrated, done and over with some two months ago?

Now, I have had a couple of close encounters and many narrow but successful escapes from being a part of this Onam- frenzy back in Delhi. But Bangalore (and marriage!) changed many things. When I am really saying- "You have to be kidding. Please count me out for heavens sake!", what actually comes out of my mouth is- "WOW! What will I wear? I cant wait!!!"

This year, (this is an annual affair of course, if you haven't figured out yet!) as usual everybody at home was super- excited. Besides the bad karaoke songs, zero- practice stage dance performances by kids , microphone screeches interrupted by inaudible speeches by the president (not of India duh!)- of the organization, bouquet handing to chief guest, prize distribution for 1)essay writing 2)recital 3) drawing 4) chess 5) voodoo doll making... was my family's favorite event!!!!!!!!! Any guesses?


POOKALAM!!!!


This could be my deja- vu, but the family got into plucking, sorting, cutting flowers the previous night of D-day. Again.

But of course this time it was different. This was for a competition. So obviously we were under more pressure than Sheila Dishit doing the finishing touches to the CWG preparations. We came up with a "design". We sketched. We debated. We re- sketched. We spread out newspapers on floor and made life-size design- "lest we made mistakes tomorrow!"


Finally, at the end of this grueling exercise and my husband's sinking patience level, we were ready with an un-beatable kick- ass design, a load of flowers and excitement.

Here is what we did:-

For the uninitiated, this is yellow- bosomed saakshaat- Shakuntala devi

lying down waiting seductively with her aid- Bambi for Dushyanta.

The other contenders for the big prize were:-

You might want to know if we won the prize.. Well, we DIDN'T! :-(

The judges clearly thought our kick- ass Shakuntala was no match to the fantastically symmetric, innovative, and neatly put floral designs made by others... sigh!