Onam musings and vagaries.

What does Onam mean to me?
In brief, it means gooood food.

hmm,
It means pouring love from my family, inspite of my mistakes and priorities. Lots of Grace.

Back to food again:
It means a lot of very delicious food from the mummy,grandma and Co.
(And if you have never been to an Onam feast, try showing up at one. The sheer variety of curries and pickles is bound to stupefy you! )

It means enduring unbearable music at unbearable volumes.
Onam means that you can,atleast in my neighbourhood,play popular Tamil hits(You can identify these songs by the sudden feeling of wanting to bury your head/vomiting that accompanies them.), Eminem, 50Cent, Black Eyed Peas and Mind-Numbing Malayalam numbers that sound as if they were composed atleast 150 years ago.

And all this, at volumes which ensure that people in Kanyakumari can listen to what is being played in Trivandrum.

I have enjoyed the sounds of fighter jets taking off and the rude bellowing of peddlers in trains better than the music played here. I mean , have you ever tried reading the Bible with the Black-eyed Peas yelling " My Humps- My Humps, My Humps My Humps! " in the background at atleast 100decibels?

I may sound like a pious and irritated octogenarian now, but the many of the youth here seem to have no more purpose than have a rolling good time playing their funky(!) music and doing their strutting up and down.
(Hey , i can be a good judge !)

Hmm.. on second thoughts, not all tamil songs they played were bad ok? Some of them were quite lovely; SOME of them, i said!

Thats the best part about such trying experiences. There is till something good and lovely thrown in with the bad and ugly. Further proof for the existence of God?

ok, i will spoil this post for you.
But then again, what WAS the point of all this festivity on Onam actually?

Looking at my growing paunch, i am reminded of that king Mahabali from the Onam legend. He is typically picturised as a pot-bellied moustached fat king with a wooden umbrella.

Maybe thats what Mallus are headed for. Attaining the ideal shape of Mahabali.
Pot-belly Prosperity.
Burp..