Onam '08

This day has always been looked forward to. Partly cuz it brings a lot of joy and harmony but mainly because I had not joined the class during the Onam celebration last year; I had gone on a North India tour with my family. The last week had been the longest so far. It had been nearly two months since I had gone home. I wanted to go home asap, but more than that, I considered it an obligation that I be present for the Onam celebrations at college. But the saddest part was that, most of my classmates decided to go home before the day. The celebration was scheduled on Friday, but the girls staying at the hostel had started to go home by Wednesday. One of them, Rasmi (a.k.a ;-)) said, “You don’t know how boring it is to stay here in hostel. I better go home.” She added, “I don’t want to be the last one in my room to leave for home”. Strange! All of them had gone home, except a few. This included my very close friend S@chu. (Note the ‘@’ in place of an ‘a’; she simply loves it!! Strange! :-) ). Though she had hesitations about wearing a fancy red sari; said it made her look thinner! But finally she replied in the positive. But what was more disheartening was that last time I was the one to go on tour during Onam, while this time most of my good friends were going. Reena had gone to Delhi on a family trip and Rasmi on a Chennai trip. Lina had planned a Bangalore trip. However, it was scheduled after the celebration.
September 4th, the day before celebration. We had class till noon and the preparations for the next day were on from the afternoon. This included stacking up the benches and desks and cleaning the floor. I had a terrible headache since morning and I wanted to take rest at any cost. I had to leave college at noon. The pain was excruciating. I must at this point thank my friend S@chu for massaging my scalp. She was there with me for over an hour, rubbing my forehead and trying to sink a vein that had protruded on either side of my scalp! It happens to me every time I get a severe headache. I felt better after a few minutes. My friend Renju was also beside me. However, my condition started to worsen with time and I decided to leave. I apologized for not being able to stay back and help and left.

The Genesis-Mithun,Mukundan,Jobish and Vijith
September 5th- the most awaited day of the week, at least for me! I was awakened by my friend Deepu. He came in clad in Kasavu Mundu (the traditional Onam wear for men, ‘dhoti’ kind of outfit!) and a pink shirt. I got up and got ready in a few minutes. I wore a Kasavu Mundu with a red border and a red shirt. As soon as I got dressed, I rushed to my friend Prashant’s room. He is not used to wearing Mundu, particularly cuz he’d been brought up in Delhi. I had a tough time getting him dressed. He is not very patient, and by the time I would be making the crease, he would have finished tucking in the end to his waist. I somehow made it up. Next destination was Vinit’s room! Another North Indian rascal! Fortunately, he had already been dressed up when I reached his room, with a belt around his waist, as a protection to prevent any chances of wardrobe malfunction! ;-) All of us rushed to college. Vinit had doubts walking all the way to college and opined for an auto rickshaw ride. It was turned down by me though! When I got to the class, the design layout for the Pookkalam (Flower Carpet) had already been drawn on the floor by Vijith, Mukundan, Jobish, Mithun and Lina on the previous day. Everyone in class looked beautiful: boys in mundu and girls in saris. There was an unusual, yet pleasant aura filling the whole classroom. Everyone was happy. We were greeted with the tag-name “OCSC troupe”! At every corner of the classroom, and even on the floor, a few of them were gathered, pinching and cutting the flower petals to the appropriate sizes to be laid down in the Pookkalam. There were photo sessions going on in the meantime. A few of them were “group specific”. There are groups in our class! The prominent groups being IBBA, ABS, BADG and LSDRap, in the order in which they were conceived! IBBA stands for IT Back Benchers’ Association. ABS, BADG and LSDRap were formed from the first letters of the names of members. ABS includes Archana, Bindhu and Saranya, BADG includes Bindhya, Anisha, Dakshayani and Greeshma. LSDRap has Lina, Sajna (or S@chu), Darshana, Renju, Anup (that’s me!!) and Prashant as members. I was the last to join this group; two earlier members were kicked out by the rest, for reasons irrelevant to elucidate here! ;-) The bottom line is that they were two-of-a-kind! In spite of having groups, there was no group-ism of any sort. We were essentially one class. The layout on the floor looked nothing more than a labyrinth of curves, lines and circles, arcs and what not! Last year, we had bagged the first prize in Pookkalam Competition. But alas, I wasn’t present to be a part of the victory! I too joined in the business of pinching the flowers. The violet Vaadamulla (or Undamalli), the smallest flower in the lot was the most difficult to pinch. There were over 6 friends involved in it. There were also a few involved in pinching other flowers. Everyone had doubts of how to pinch the magenta Kozhivaalan flower. I took over the job and hired a few associates and taught them how to do it. Please excuse me for my explicit usage of Malayalam names for the flowers. I don’t know if these flowers have any common names in English and frankly, I’m unaware of the scientific names! Please bear with my ignorance. I shifted from different flowers and had my hand on every flower present there! It was fun, the flowers were beautiful, but some of them had a pungent smell hidden under the veneer of their beautiful colors.

The OCSC Troupe -Me, Deepu, Prashant and Vinit

Me, Azar and Deepu engaged in the pinching business

The deadline for the Pookkalam laying was 11am. By 10am, everyone abandoned photo capturing and was solely involved in making the flower carpet. The pinching of flowers sped up and the Pookkalam began to take shape. The curves and arcs were filled with flower petals of different colors- orange and yellow (Jhendumalli), white (Jamandhi), pink and white (Arali), Vaadamulla and Kozhivaalan. Only the usage of flowers was allowed in the competition. Using any kind of leaves disqualified the participation. We were running against time to finish making the carpet. There were last minute changes in design. The Pookkalam was almost done when there was a confusion of which color to fill in the last circle. There were a lot of suggestions. A few opined to half the last circle and fill each half with a different color. There were also suggestions to use three outer circles. Finally, a consensus was arrived. The former design was chosen and the process resumed. The pinching of flowers came to an end and the circumference of the Pookkalam was now crowded with over 10 of us kneeling down, filling in the patches and making finishing touches. Once finished, it looked like a masterpiece; a creation accomplished by the involvement of every one of us. Once the Pookkalam was all set, it was time for cleaning. The leftovers of the flowers and leaves had to be removed from the floor. The girls hesitated taking up the cleaning themselves, saying “we are in saris, you can imagine how difficult it is for us to sweep the room”. In a sense, they are right, cuz most of them were wearing a sari for the first time. It was evident from the way they were walking; half-a-step at a time! Many of them were literally hopping while walking down the stairway, from the fear of tripping over. Once the room was cleaned, it was time for decorating the floor. Mukundan wrote Onam Greetings and Jobish, Prashant, Vijith and I decorated it with flowers. To give the floor a more cultural effect, Vijith drew the Kathakali face on the floor. Kathakali is an art form of Kerala. It is a musical narration of a myth, involving dance and complex facial expressions. This was followed by the drawing of the footsteps of Mahabali. Legend has it that King Mahabali visits his subjects every year for Onam. However, it was Prashant’s feet, which was outlined on behalf of the real Mahabali!

The bloggers - Me, Hari and Prashant

After the floor was set for the jury to judge, it was time for us to go bird-watching! Birds dressed in saris; birds which did not fly! Mithun, Prashant, Anand, Vinit, Renjith and I set out, apparently to check out the Pookkalams of other classes, but essentially to stroll throughout the campus on the look out for rare breeds! We started off with the juniors’ block. The catch there was not very impressive. But those who never looked pretty otherwise seemed to have some appeal in sari. We being seniors were not affected by any restrictions on ogling. Who is gonna question us?!! Humph! Next we went to the seniors’ block, but this time we were a bit cautious. They are seniors after all! They could question us, in any manner they wished! I personally had someone to see among the seniors. I had seen her in the morning, with a little help from my friend Sree Reshmi! But that was just a blur! I wanted to see her again. This time Vinit helped me spot her in her class. I was ‘kinda’ satisfied! She looked pretty. She always did. Once we had finished preying around, we went straight to the Paayasam stall. It was noon, and very hot. We were hungry. The morning was spent mostly making the Pookkalam, crouching and kneeling throughout. My knee joint was aching with the same intensity as my empty stomach was. By 1pm, most of them had left for lunch, while a few boys went for the usual boozing session. The sport events had not yet started; neither did they announce the winner of the Pookkalam Competition. The much awaited Tug-of-War, Musical Chair and Uriyadi (A kind of Piñata game, in which an earthen pot is hung over-head and the participant has to break it while the pot will be pulled up and down to prevent it being hit) was delayed. We were getting restless and by 2 pm, all of us decided to leave. A few more snaps were taken and everyone said goodbye and started to leave. Prashant being the class representative, stayed back to hear the results of the competitions.

A fun filled day had finally come to an end. Everything was a blur. It all seemed to end in a jiffy. It was fun to have a day off after the long series of exams. But sad that it all happened in a matter of hours. Walking back to my hostel, I thought about the last days in my college. How sad it would be to leave all my friends and bid farewell…barely two years from now…