Onam @ my office :-)

Onam @ TEL Trivandrum

Here I am, back with one more of my so-called narrations – this time about the wonderful experiences which I had during the Onam celebrations at our office...

Being in God’s own country – Kerala, I’d been anticipating this Onam week for quite sometime – just for the kind of festivities which tend to unfold here. And, it was really a wonderful time during August 16-20 at our office when the celebrations begun in full splendour. Competitions

such as Valam Izhukkal (Tug-of-war), Kalam adi (Hitting a pot blindfolded), Uriyadi, (quite common.. everybody knows), along with certain music novices in action with group songs, instrumental music etc.,

The Athapookalam is the most significant section of the week, with teams coming up with the most imaginative and culturally-rich designs to be enriched with myriad varieties of flowers.

First prize winning Pookalam!

Our team’s design went through the following stages – and – I must say, it was fun arranging the Pookalam, drawing the paper figure on the floor with the markers – rubbing them off unintentionally as and when we tried drawing the upper portions of the figure – making the different coloured flowers ready for use in Pookalam – finally setting the flowers in their respective portions of the figure – intricately removing the wrong-coloured flowers which spilled by mistake on the unwanted areas – finally rendering the finishing touch by filling up regions where floor is visible . . . Wah.. It needed extreme patience to set it right. . . My floor mates were really good enough and were upto the task. Here are some snaps for you:

It all culminated with the special Onam Sadhya arranged for us – typical Kerala cuisine.

The Palada pradhaman, Aviyal, and the Matta rice along with other tasty items accounted for a wonderful end to the Onam week at our office!!!