Another Awesome Onam !!! (Ormakal)

Another Onam approaches now, what I feel is that we are in a world that is totally different from what
it was yesterday. We belong to a generation that has passed by, and to the next generation Onam is totally different from what it was for us.
The celebrations started in those days with quarterly exams getting over and Onam holidays starting. All the kids would get up early in the morning and go hunting for flowers from the nearby houses! It was a hilarious, joyful time for us; it kept us in touch with nature, with the environment. We could identify the plants and name them, pluck them the previous day and keep them fresh overnight, without fridges, we could learn to match the different colors on the carpets. And we competed between them to make the most number of rounds, the best carpets.

Those were the days!
But today by switching on the TV, through the Onam visuals, we invite Maveli by spreading the floral carpet or letting out the traditional `Aarappu", or squatting before the tender green banana leaves. It is TV that reveals the facets of Onam to viewers, for many of whom it is a total surprise...

Today"s pookalams are designer-made, crafted from Thovala flowers of Tamil Nadu. Children have become separated from nature. Even Fun is sitting before the TV surfing channels, savoring the menu presented by the different channels.
The harvest festival turned as a market-centered, the time for discount sellers and loan sharks. Unless it is youth festivals or beauty contests no youth belonging to the MTV generation will ever want to be clothed in the traditional Malayali dress.

Today we don’t have trees in compounds or flats’s, so no swings for the women and children,
and beauty conscious woman are not ready for kaikottikali. Thalapanthu, parisamuttukali and other games for the men are passes in the era of cricket. Pulikkali and Boat races are for tourist extravaganza.
Preparation for Onam cuisine can be tedious, depriving them of precious TV watching time. People are made to order the packaged Onasadya, either from caterers or hotels. Only the minimum dishes are prepared at home, with packaged chips and pickles and kalan giving them enough time to watch TV and celebrating onam with film families came on channels. Onam is the time for NRI Malayalis and Malayalis in other States to wing home to celebrate. In such families there was a better semblance of Onam, with Onakkodis and partly made-to-order sadyas.


Alcohol also douses the urge to venture out, as tipplers prefer to stay at home and relax, enjoying
their drink and watching TV. Alcohol is an inevitable accompaniment to festivals and celebrations. It is the fizz from the bottle that enhances the fizz of festivals and this Onam is no different.
The element of fun, the definition of joy, the visiting and sharing and being together is passes. One wonders when fast food will replace the traditional sadya, when paper plates will displace the banana leaf and when Maveli will be welcomed to the clink of spoon and forks!