Any characters related in this article has nothing to do with you or any other people you know. It’s strictly a made up one. I think you are getting the sarcasm.
Last year I posted an article i happened to see in ‘The Hindu’. And of all the good things about Onam, the laughing joke – The Pookalam.
Every year, in every educational institutions in Kerala, students celebrate Onam to the highest with songs, games and the important of all – the pookalam. Everywhere, the story is same.
- Some days before the celebration, someone will say that most awaited sentence, “അതെ? പൂക്കളം ഇടണ്ടേ?” (The planning officially starts here.)
- And then, rest of the people are like, “വേണം.”
- They pitch a good design, and the fucked up fact. Everyone googles. For the last 5 years I have the same exact design every year, the same one, The same jpg. The same website.
- [ A personal piece of mine :: For me, everything looks exactly the same, I have no idea how people choose the design. Two things that gives me nightmares – The textiles shops, and infinte amount of color, like a color wheel or something. ]
- Some one selects the design. And almost everyone agrees to it. Simply because, I think that all of them are so confused to select anything else.
- Then comes that challenging dialogue from someone. “Design is good. പക്ഷെ അത് പെര്ഫെക്റ്റ് ആയി എട്ടിലെങ്ങില് ബോര് ആയിരിക്കും.”
- Everyone has to accept the challenge because, well, because its a fucking challenge.
- And now someone orders the flowers, according to the design that they haven’t yet tried on.[ I have no idea how they determine the quatity looking at a picture either, may be that someone might be very experienced or something.]
The day comes up, apparently the most interesting part is the way things happen that day.
Most of the institutions now conduct pookalam as a competition. And that itself tear apart the idea of Onam. Now some bunch of people have challenged themselves to get a place worth nothing. Since the honor and other egos are at stake, to increase the so called beauty of pookalam, the size is increased and hence the amount of money goes up. I think Keralates love to give money to the tamilians more than any time of the year. Because, during Onam, apparently, some part of Tamil Nadu too are celebrating. 😉 You know what I am talking about.
- The more artistic ones deal with arranging the flower on the floor. And the less talented people deal with cutting the flowers and preparing it for the former mentioned people.
- During the competition, of-course there is a time limit. And the truth is there is not a single team in Kerala who think the times enough. Seriously, they always spend the last half an hour doing shit loads of work and trying to pull it off successfully. And most of them succeed at the cost of not completing it fully and rubbing off the rest of the design.
- Now, no one really looks at the design they selected and the design on the floor. I did once and that was a life changer. You see something very different out there except some things in the middle.
And that’s how every single Onam pass by. But now you ask me, if I will keep away from all this, since I have criticized it a lot. Mm.. well, Nope. Because, Its not about the waste of money or how astonishingly stupid people can be. Its about the time you spend with them and the fun you have. Its about the sarcastic dialogues, Its about the pranks, Its about the endless smiles, happiness and laughs. And all of them are limitless. mesmerizing memories.’
World, Happy Onam!!
Some Bonus Onam Memes. You might like it.
