Onam 2019 LA

Reshmi had called Divya and during the call mentioned that Sudheer,Reshmi and children would be visiting Oak Park from Phoenix and asked whether we would like to join in as well.

Saturday
Morning..
Kittu piano
Kittu has a trial piano class at 9:30 a.m. Started packing in the morning but we were not done by 9:30. So Kittu attended his piano class with me while Divya completed the packing and we were off to LA around lunch time..

Amal/Allu house
We reached around 8 PM at Amal/Allu's house. Mahesh/Anil/Sudheer/Amal/Cinish and families were present.  After a brief chit-chat, Anil amped up the ambience, getting the husbands to sing "Andhikadappurathorola kuda.. "

Anupallavi
Love and appreciation for classic malayalam movie songs is something that pretty much every keralite holds close to his/ her heart. Sudheer started the "Anupallavi" quiz where Sudheer would sing the anupallavi of a song and the rest of us have to find the start of the song. Anupallavi game was the method, re-living the beauty of these songs is what we all wanted and we enjoyed singing together. Everyone sang and participated. Great fun.
While the festivities were in full swing, Geo and family dropped by, returning from a one-day beach/wine-tasting vacation. I got introduced to Geo as I had left Oak Park by the time Geo came in.

Non-vegetarian dinner
We enjoyed all the variety curries - alleppey fish curry, prawns fry, chicken etc, but the charm of porotta-beef is just unbeatable. Like Nivin says in the movie "Thattathin Marayathu", " dinner tabilil porottayum beefum vechal chuttumullathonnum kanan pattilla.. "

Dumb-Charades 
Next up, Dumb-Charades contest between the husbands and the wives. The amount of acting Reshmi put in to communicate the word "Aparan" for the movie name "Aparanmar Nagarathil" is more than the acting within the movie itself. Very spirited participation from everyone, but the husbands were the clear winners. Anu(Anil's wife) shined with sharp, fast and correct guesses multiple times.

Cancelled room
We had booked a hotel near by during the drive, but on arriving there, we were told that the room had been canceled due to a credit card decline. So we went back to Amal's house. Husbands were allotted Mahesh's apartment. Wives were allotted Amal's apartment. Bigger kids were to stay with Anil's family.

Carroms 
At Mahesh's house, we started carroms off. Anil and his "Om Shu" manthra to foil opponent's strike showed it's power. Much more team-based carroms happened on Sunday with the losing team being assigned tasks like cleaning the plantain leaves etc

Sunday 
Today is the big day. Onam would be celebrated today. Onasadya would be prepared at Allu's house. All of us would wear traditional Onam clothes. We would have Onasadya served in plantain leaves, which is the tradition. We would have two payasams and host of items to decorate the plantain leaf and to fill our tummies and hearts.

Puttu kadala 
After a comfortable night at Mahesh's place, we woke up to have Mahesh make us early morning tea. Mahesh's tea was just as impressive as his beef curry from the pot-luck. We went to Amal's house and had our kerala traditional "puttu kadala", breakfast of the masses in Kerala.


4 PM Onasadya
 With all the kitchen work and the traditional dress work, we had our Onasadya at 4 PM.  Onasadya might have been a bit late in time for lunch but as Amal commented "This year, we would be the first ones to celebrate Onam in the whole world".
We were not to rush to the table to have food yet. We had fun getting photographed in our new festival clothes. After group photographies, finally arrived at the lunch table. Each and every item tasted of the warmth and friendship that the families shared. Parippu payasam stood out as cult to my tongue as I found it very sweet and faultless for "parippu payasam" which does not get as much limelight in the world of payasams as say "Ada pradhaman".

Children sat on the floor and had their plastic plantain shaped leaves decorated with food items.  Husbands sat at the table and pushed the elasticity of their stomachs to test with multiple rounds of rice, payasams etc, plodded on by each other and the wives to have more and more food. After the husbands were done and left the arena, the wives took over the table and had the husbands serve them the Onasadya.

Dojo-Boom trampoline jumping
Onam nostalgia is for the adults. Kids had been lobbying their mothers for a Dojo-boom trampoline jump outing in the evening. The dads took the kids out and we were just in time to have the kids do the 8pm to 9pm trampoline jumping. Active jumpy fun. Children enjoyed the challenges at their own level.

Anthakshari
Back at Amal/Allu house,  after some settling down, husbands and wives tusked up for anthakshari. Great participation from both the groups. We had to wind up to have dinner.

Onasadya Buffet dinner 
Back from Dojo-boom, with not much of appetite after the heavy late Onasadya lunch, we had a light dinner with just a few of the choices from the twenty plus options we had to go with rice.

Sleep allocation 
Same protocol as the previous night. Once Sudheer/Amal/Mahesh and me reached Mahesh's apartment, we started off with our conversations, but I felt too sleepy and we retired much earlier than Saturday.

Monday 
Kittu illness
Divya called up early in the morning on monday as Kittu was a bit ill. I could not pick up the phone as the touch screen was not responding. Vandana called Mahesh and informed of the situation. Mahesh and me woke up and went to Amal's house to check on Kittu. Amal and Sudheer were still sleeping.
Kittu was indeed sick, after Kaiser nurse consultation, we had to decide to pack our bags and go home and show Kittu at the Santa Clarita urgent care on the way.

Kittu's doctor visit went well, and he is lying on my arms as I close this memoir. I like to write up memoirs as soon as possible so that I don't miss out on the details but this is probably the most prompt post I have written ever as I thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of days with our Oak Park gang. I just parked my car, had a cup of tea, and sat on the laptop.

"mundin thalapponnu pokki kuthi.. " adutha onathinu koodum vare....