All the people had equality.
And people were joyful and merry;
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Death of the children was never even heard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no one was false in speech either.
Measures and weights were right;
No one cheated or wronged his neighbour.
When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,
All the people formed one casteless race.
They were all free from harm.
There was neither anxiety nor sickness,
Death of the children was never even heard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor deceit,
And no one was false in speech either.
Measures and weights were right;
No one cheated or wronged his neighbour.
When Maveli, our King, ruled the land,
All the people formed one casteless race.
The auspicious month of Chingam Heralds the arrival of the greatest of the Malayali festivals, Onam. The return of their beloved king Mahabali (Maveli is the apt term I guess), the roots of which are embedded in the Indian epics. A demon who earns the envy of the heavens is seldom born in the epics. The day also marks the harvesting season, a day when the farmer reaps the fortune of his hard work. The achievements of the great Demon king is well described in the above poem (though the Malayalam version of it would sound more poetic and meaningful), and all those values long forgotten.
Onam now heralds the arrival of vacation to the school kids, a day off from work for all those employed in "Multi-National Companies". A day when the recent blockbusters is shown on the TV screens. Another day for the drunken state to booze.
A two or three bedroom flat has no space for a pookalam. Even if you manage a space for it where are the flowers? Who shall take the pain to go to the local market or road side seller to buy those at unaffordable prices at the time of recession? Thanks to the instant mixes available at the markets the appetite issue seems to be resolved. Else we would have resorted to the foreign junk food on that day too.
Well I may be sounding like a teacher of architecture who seems to have found all the mistakes in the design but with no solutions to the issues. The answer to how else should I look at the onam celebration in the present day seems to be the one that should be dealt with. Frankly I have no answer to it but some hypothetical statements which seems way beyond a practical solution.
But all I wish is that a day should not come when the kids would have to open up this link to know what actually was or is ONAM.
