the dreamslittle

Onam through the phone

I am sure that all Keralites around the globe must have had a very nice Onam in their own ways. The ones residing in Kerala would have enjoyed the maximum! In my case, the school opened on the Onam day here and the kids went to school! I sat here and made a few phone calls to Kerala and talked to my family(my brothers and their families and my mother). They were all busy and seemed to be having a nice time. That was a great feeling to know.

"How is the Onam there?" They asked.

"Onam is fantastic here!" My reply.

I did not want to upset them by telling that there is not an official Onam in England! They probably knew about this already. The Malayali Association do organise Onam here, but not on the Onam day! It is going to be on this Sunday and you can go there and have the Onam feast plus watch some programmes or something of that sort.

Then I called my friends. Most of them were very busy. Some were on the middle of the usual parties and stuff. Some of them were planning to go to the Nilgris to witness the flowering Neelakkurinjis which I also wanted to see for many years! I haven't seen them flowering at all! I felt bit jealous!

But there is nothing I could do other than to put this image of those flowers in this blog!

Onam Greetings

Onam means togetherness

Onam means happiness

Onam means richness

Rich enough to love!

Have a wonderful Onam

"The death of Sathyapalan"

That was the name of the drama which was supposed to be playing in front of the festive spectators of Onam on that 'thiruvonam' day in Pooyappally. The influence of television was yet to arrive and people found amusement in the traditional festival celebration modes which existed from the olden days. The modern additions included were going for a film in the local cinema where people queued for tickets and where riots broke out always in the end.

The Pooyappally Arts And Sports Club were organizing their drama  on the Onam day which was named as "the death of Sathyapalan!"

"Hurry up, we should be going for the drama!" The women would say each other while preparing the Onam feast!

"The drama is going to be nice!" The men murmured each other while drinking alcohol in the early hours of the day.

"Come on, drink fast and get out of my way and watch for the excise jeep in case..!" Thankachan, the illegal alcohol trader would urge to his customers.

"I have to finish selling this bottles and take my family for the drama!" He had no patience left.

Pooyappally, the small village near Kollam was getting ready for a pleasant Onam evening when they all can watch the drama and enjoy their Onam in their own unique way.

Njanaseelan, the local youngster had been drinking all day from the early morning. He worked as a head loading laborer in the village. He had plenty of money to drink because he had managed to get reasonable sums from the people and from the shops as his Onam bonus.  When he reached the venue where the drama was staging, it was only almost 30 minutes for the drama to begin. He went straight into the green room. The actors where getting their make ups on.

"We should make it fantastic this time!" He said. The actors smiled. They were very busy in their own world.

"I am here, and if someone is going to make any disruption, I will look after them. You guys take your heads away from those things. Let me see if anybody have the guts to do so..!"

From that moment onwards, Njanaseelan, the local citizen began to take the role of a caretaker and he became very vigilant and asked the people to become silent, if he finds anybody, even laughing a bit loud!

"This is our own young people, trying to entertain us and it is our moral obligation to co operate with them!" He explained his philosophy!

"My dear friends.., as the part of our Onam celebrations this year, the Pooyappally Arts And Sports Club proudly presents the drama "The death of Sathyapalan" The announcement came and the curtains went up. Someone came to the stage and started delivering his dialog."Sathyapalan is dead and the truth is missing.."

"Stop it..stop it..Sathyapalan is still alive...!" A man stood up from the audience and started walking towards the stage!

Njanaseelan saw this atrocity. He ran towards the culprit and grabbed him in his throat and began kicking him and the crowd all stood up and the women started running. Some of the crowd went on thowing stones towards the stage and the actors ran away to rescue themselves. In the meantime someone set fire on the stage!

The Pooyappally Arts And Sports Club was only trying to stage a modern drama in which the main actor was to emerge in the beginning from the audience!