Heeeeeeeeeee

Wat am I so "heeeeeeee" abt?...BTW...the above piece of art is my creation:)

As strange as it sounds.....I think this year is gonna be the 1st year since coll[Now Coll was a long time ago]....that Im gonna be spending "Onam" at home.....

Mallus as such have very few festivals....I think the sole reason being that.... that part of the universe has its own individuality n they retain it even if they r on the moon:)

S...I have been Mallucized[Word coined today in conjunction with Vids...is meant to mean criticized as in Mal] often....largely for the accent part...n thats when I remember a cute sms forward I once received...goes on something like this...

"What did the Mallus tell the British when they finally left India?

...

...

...

U screwed our motherland for ages.....V will screw ur mothertongue forever"

Forwards apart....strangely these days..I dont receive any email forwards..n sometimes I wonder if ppal think I have outgrown it or something....Gone are the good old forwarding days.....

These days in office...my day is made if there is a chain mail of sorts running across pals.....My chief entertainment source....

Getting back to festivals.....I have had like umpteen no. of ppal ask me...if v have the Ganesha Chathruthi or Varamahalakshmi or many of the other festivals that my homeland..ya...ya...Karnataka.....boasts of.....making me feel like a BBCM....n thats ur very own...B'lore Born Confused Mallu....

I cant remember the no. of times....I have mixed up languages.....I add Mal in Kannada.....Mal in Tamil.....n luckily havent yet added it in Hindi n English....

Onam .....is 1 festival...that I've always looked forward to....simply coz the only other festival is close to six months away.....

Onam....brings back childhood memories....of we guys doing the pookalam[floral designs] with uncles....n pals...

My uncle...a wonderful artist...used to actually make floral designs of the Kathakali art form n our entire mornings used to have us outside the house making the bestest possiblest patterns...n then run off to our fellow neighbour's houses to see if they had done any better!!!!

I must admit that we were hardly disappointed...hehehhe...

Collecting flowers for the pookalam was always a wonderful ritual....our non-Mallu neighbours used to help us out with flowers from their own garden....telling us that ...oh...looks like u need a lil more of white....or red in the pattern....

N living in V.Pura...is almost like living in Kerala.....v r surrounded by Mallus..in all corners...

Onam feasts have elasheri, aviyal,sambhar,olan,yeasthu[my favourite dish cooked in coconut milk...also called stew to mere mortals...but in our part of Kerala....v call it yeasthu], kalan, papadam, pulliinji,vadagapulli,payasam...n the list is almost endless:)

Onam is abt feasts n abt family get-togethers n abt coming together for an occasion types...

I was asked today as to y I was wearing a Kerala Style sari ...n I told my friend...that its Uthradam.....1st Onam....she asked me y we celebrate Onam....I told her ...hey..the same reason as to y u celebrate Diwali.....n happily started off with the Mahabali n the Vamana story ...as to how Mahabali was pushed to Pathal...n how he happens to come to meet his subjects....To which she quickly added telling me that...v dont celebrate Diwali for the same reason...In the North...v celebrate Diwali to commemorate Ram's return from Vanvas n Lanka.....

After going through agonies of not having basic mythological knowledge......I turned to another friend...who happened to be from the South...who started off a demon killing n the Vamana- Bali connection....solving my agony issues instantly:)