Thaaram Onam 2025
Minimal Elegant Decor
The hall decor was planned out to be minimal for this year's onam, and had a quiet elegance to it. The Maveli cutout is very effective and good value for money, an idea that Vipin Vasudevan had introduced last Onam, and executed on this one as well.
Vipin Viswanathan's handmade vanji from last year made a reappearance as well this time, bringing in some grandeur.
Pookkalam
Pookkalam had looked good in the morning, and then a layer of rose petals were added all around, elevating the look considerably. Sruthi had done most of the work at the hall today morning, while Nithya, Ramshi, Divyas had done a lot of background work, with chasing flowers, and getting the petals ready. Lot of hardwork behind the beautiful pookkalam.
Sound System Setup
Girish came in with his two speakers, speaker stands, a woofer, two transmitters, two receivers, four mikes, a mixer, the sound cables, wires, laptop etc. Arun and myself were apprentices as Girish explained the setup he was doing, and we listened on trying to gain some understanding. We were shadowing Girish because he had to leave early for the Agam concert, and we have the responsibility of dismantling the sound setup.
However, inspite of all the obedient apprenticeship, when the mike sound was not coming through, both of us were unable to figure out that the receiver cable needed to have been connected, and had to wait for Girish to come back with family for the MC to get the talk talking.
Hall was bustling with people
Most of the folks had arrived. But two key people were missing - Banerjee who needs to give the welcome speech, and Vipin Das who would be the MC for the event.
Lighing the lamp
Ajith's mom who is visiting from India lit the lamp to auspiciously inaugurate the event.
Welcome speech
In a little bit, both of them arrived. Vipin Das called for Banerjee to present the welcome speech. Banerjee gave a smart and positive welcome speech. Everyone appreciated the confident delivery. To add to that, Banerjee has offered to take on the role of Maveli for next year Onam!
Vipin Das brought in a very positive energy to the space with his friendly and nice compering. Banerjee had lifted the ambience with his speech.
Thiruvathira
The ladies group performed a Thiruvathira dance performance just like tradition has been here at Thaaram. This time, the dances seemed slightly more complex than last time to my untrained eyes.
Mythili song
Mythili sang an english song. Her energy and enthusiasm got people feet tapping - excellent performance from her. I had seen her in the morning at the parking lot - and she had asked me how do I look in her traditional dress? I was like I should have had said something about her special Onam dress right away!
New families welcome
We invited the new families who joined our community this year, and they gave a quick intro to the group. Rajesh & Malavika, Prabin & Parvathy, Darshana & Aditya , Mahima & Kiran, Justin & Riya, Praveena & Girish gave a quick brief. Welcome to the group all of you!
Cinish song
I sang "Mudipookkal vaadiyal", a Raveendran composition by Yesudas. While learning the song, I was spell bound by the legendariness that Yesudas brings in to each of his songs.
Girish song
Girish sang "Thoomanjin nenjilothungi.." by Johnson mash. The bass level and acoustics came out perfect for Girish's performance while folks mentioned that the bass level was a bit high for my performance - possibly a mike placement issue.
Kids' dance
There was a small kids' dance performance as well. Kudos to Dana and Swathi for all the efforts in training the kids.
Sadya
Onam celebration was off to a great start. It was time for Sadya. Nice nostalgia evoking, healthy food - my favorites were the paripp that started the experience, and aviyal.
Photo shoot
While the sadya was in progress, family photos were being taken against the back drop that the decor team had set up. It was a very efficient use of time I felt. Good use of the Sadya waiting time. Meanwhile, the sound system continued to add value as malayalam songs played on in the background.
Games
Gafoor and Bharathi - our games team took over and kept the energy level up with multiple games. Highlights were the woman's tug of war and men's tug of war events, both of which were won by the Avesham team. While Arun's strategical insights drove the men's tug of war win, it was a sheer display of grit from the ladies team, who continued to pull the tug even after having fallen down that sealed the win. Manu showed excellent fighting back spirit, and fought with the games committee to bring justice to his team. He kept on doing that for the rest of the day over multiple group discussions with Gafoor.
All in all, it was yet another fun filled bond building Onam celebration. It was great to connect with many new families in the process, and it is great to see the community grow!
Behind the scene
For any event, there is the event itself, and there is then the long thread of deliberations, discussions, drama and work that lead on to the event. Often, the experience of getting the event to happen is way more fun than the day of the event itself.
While the decor work was in progress, Anjali and Ramshi were drawing the pookkalam design on the ground. To make sure that the cleaning lady does not wipe off the design from the floor, we had a sign setup - "Do not clean/ No Limpiar *" and a * to choose your language of preference.
The stand holding the plantain leaf backdrop was smaller than the barn door. Initial proposal was to hang the flowers in continuous U loops to cover the length. I wanted to have a white cloth covering that space. Ideas on how to hang white cloth on top - running a twine horizontally over the frame, placing a pvc pipe on top - multiple ideas were coming up, and the smoke alarm started ringing. Ramshi looked up from her pookkalam and said - why don't you guys use curtain rods? I think we have some spare at home.
So Manu got curtain rods from Gafoor's home. Gafoor was also responsible for bringing in all the chairs and tables for the sadya. He even taped the wires down with a red tape to prevent kids tripping down. Gafoor was also responsible for most of the vessels, ladles, "thookku paathram" etc. On the day of Onam, I told him - Most of these things have come from you. He brushed it off with a smirk and said - you have no idea how great I really am. What a personality!
Both the Vipins are super stars. It is hard to see Vipin Viswanath in discussions. He is a man of action. Vipin V was there to stand on top of the stool on top of the bench to install the curtain rods, and put the white clothes into the rods. He was there after the event to clean up the vessels that Gafoor had brought. He was there for serving Sadya. It is hard to find Vipin without contributing to the setting he is in. He always knows how to make himself useful, and gets things moving.
For the pookkalam, there is a lot of flower chasing that happens behind the scenes. And there are volunteers who contributed flowers from their garden - Rema chechi, Shanthi chechi, Rejy chettan, and Divya Vipin. I have taken a leaf out of Vipin Das's page who calls everyone "chetta". He even calls me "chetta" even though I am younger than him. It is a very sweet address so I have never corrected him. I know lot of other folks as well who love his "chetta" vili. Anjali, Divya, Nithya, Sruthi ,Rema chechi, Shanthi chechi were all up late night to get the petals sorted out. It is a lot of tedious work.
These are some of the efforts that I had some visibility over.
Kudos to the thiruvathira team - Leena chechi, Anjali,Raji, Divya Vipin, Swathi,Dana, Neenu, Ambili. There are a lot of practice sessions behind the performance today.
Sadya coordination was captained by Manu, Mahesh, Vipin Das and Leena chechi. Lot of back and forth to arrive at the dishes assignment. Kudos to the kitchen efforts and the coordination efforts.
The coolers might not have looked all that fashionable. And the sight of Vipins and Manu/Vijesh etc filling up the air coolers with water filled buckets every once in a while is definitely not high status. The coolers did not serve as AC. That is true. But atleast, when you feel like you need some cool, you can stand next to it. This was a cool idea that sprouted in Vijesh's brain, and he and Manu had done the interaction with the vendor.
Mythili's song performance was a highlight of the day. Anju and Mahesh would have put in a lot of effort to train her, and have her deliver the much appreciated performance. Mahesh has a hurt back currently, but stayed on through the day supporting the team.
It was great to see Rezin who is relatively new to the community volunteer, and come in on the previous day. It was a great sight to see all the new members participate in the sadya arrangements, and other activities through the day. Looking forward to see more and more participation from more and more folks for our upcoming events.
It is a lot of camaraderie. As always, this is just a slice based on what I have personally seen.Please pat yourself on the back for all the great work that you put. Congratulations on making to the end of the blog.
p.s. I am team Avesham captain but the views expressed in this blog are totally unbiased.
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