Onam, the festival of flowers and colours, passed by bringing in peace and happiness to every Keralite irrespective of caste, creed or religion. The most important festival for Keralites is celebrated in the month of ‘Chingam’ as per the Malayalam calendar which falls between the end of August and beginning of September. Essentially a harvest festival, Onam is considered as Malayali’s New Year too.
According to the legend, Onam is celebrated in memory of epical king Mahabali who was dedicated to ensuring the welfare of his people. During his blissful rule people enjoyed peace, equality and freedom. It’s believed that during Onam, Mahabali visits his erstwhile subjects.
Flip Media Trivandrum joined the party. It was unanimously decided that the celebrations be held in a truly traditional way on the first day of Chingam, i.e. 18th August. An event committee was formed, with Sujith Sukumara Pillai as the head and Jithin, Jose and Sunil as members. It was also decided that all flippers should be in traditional attire.
Pleasant weather set the perfect stage for the celebrations on the D-day. The spirit of Onam was so evident inside Technopark. Flippers reached early at the office in traditional outfits -- men in shirt and ‘dhothi’ and ladies in ‘kasavu saree’. Flippers were divided into different teams and each assigned a task.
As it is Onam, the main attraction has to be Pookalam, intricately designed flower carpet along with lit up traditional lamp. Jithin and Shihab headed early in the morning to the market to buy fresh flowers while another team was busy in making the design sketch for Pookalam. Thanks to Jose, Sunil, Dhivya, Haneesh, Sreeraj, Ihaz, Akbar, Amulya.... (it’s a big list), a beautiful Pookalam was made in the office reception in no time.
Onam 2010 was officially inaugurated by Nishanth, followed by Sunil and lady flippers, by lighting the traditional lamp. Then everyone sung the customary Onam song,
“maveli naadu vaanidum kaalam
manushyar allarum onnu pole...”
which means during the reign of King Mahabali, everyone was considered equal.
It’s lunch time, another important feature of Onam. The feast at noon during Onam is called ‘Onasadya’. However, we decided to skip it as a few flippers were fasting during the holy month of Ramzan. Instead we arranged a dinner at Hotel Park Rajadani. A few flippers rushed to the Regional Cancer Centre to donate blood for a kid, a gesture well appreciated.
Afternoon sessions were fun-filled! First was a drawing competition on subject ‘Vallamkali’ (traditional boat race). The flippers proved that they are not only best coders but also good artists. This was followed by wagon wheel in which participants were made to run around chairs arranged in a circular fashion with music in background. In each round one participant and a chair was removed. Anoop emerged as the king of wagon wheel.
Then came the funniest event of the day, ‘Rotti kadi’. One has to jump like a Kangaroo to take a bite of the bread hung from top on a string. As one jumps, the person holding the other end of the string would pull it. As the spirit ran high, participants strived to jump higher and higher until Praveen struck his head against the office ceiling. Thank god, there was no injury.
The icing on the cake was yet to follow. Felix and Mukesh did a mini-concert with Tabla and Harmonium. As the musical waves they created inside the office reached a crescendo, people were left spellbound. The performance inspired others who had never in their life put their hands on any musical instrument to have a go at it and pose for our photographers Saif and Praveen who were clicking away at anything and everything that was impressive.
Then it was ‘dumb shards’, the first lesson for acting where the participant has to convey a movie name to his/her team members by acting (no words plz). As the two teams, led by Saif and Nishanth, were entangled in a tie, Sreeja made a valuable breakthrough that ensured Saif’s team emerged victorious. The final event was ‘Sundarik pottu thodal’. The participant, blindfolded, has to place bindi on the forehead of a beauty, this time is was South Indian film actress Thamanna. (don’t lose your heartbeat, it was only a photograph, not the lady in person).
Despite being a working day, participation was cent per cent, thanks to Ash for not assigning big jobs.
Last but not the least, foodee time. We headed towards Hotel Park Rajadani to have sumptuous buffet dinner under cool dim lights. Kerala, Chinese, North Indian dishes and saladas with gulab jamun and ice cream as dessert leaving sweet memories of a perfect end to a perfect day.
Check Picasa web album for more pictures.
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