Happy Onam!

After 6:30 am Frisbee practice at Prasanna’s Layout (well more like 7 am because of the requisite bus troubles), I came back to Snehadaan campus for a day of festivities.  Onam is celebrated by the people of Kerala (the small costal state to the southwest of Karnataka- where Bangalore is).  Since Bangalore is a melting pot of people from all over India, naturally, there are a lot of people from Kerala residing here.  In fact, most of the staff including Father Mathew (the director of Sneha Care Home) himself is originally from Kerala!!  Anyways, Onam is a day celebrating the harvest.  Kerala women work late into the night making beautiful flower arrangements/carpets (see photos below) in celebration.   Technically Onam is a Hindu god, but according to Father Mathew, the festivities are more cultural than religious and all of the people from Kerala take part.  

According to random online searching, it is the Kerala harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm all over the state by people of all communities and faiths.  The festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali, whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam.  During the reign of mighty demon king, Mahabali, Kerala witnessed its golden era. Everybody in the state was happy and prosperous and king was highly regarded by his subjects. However, Mahabali's egotistical character was utilized by Gods to bring an end to his reign as they felt challenged by Mahabali's growing popularity. But, for all the good deeds done by Mahabali, God granted him the ability to annually visit his people with whom he was so attached.  It is this visit of Mahabali that is celebrated as Onam every year. People make all efforts to celebrate the festival in a grand way and impress upon their dear King that they are happy and wish him well.

So around 11 am, games in the Snehadaan grounds for the inpatients and the staff.  The kids sadly all still had class since they don’t celebrate the holiday—I felt kind of bad that I got to take aprt and they didn't!  Anyways…what started as simple music chairs and ball toss evolved into much more elaborate and interesting games.  My two favorites were probably “Draw the Bindi on the Woman’s Face,”  India’s equivalent of the childhood birthday party’s “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” and a ridiculously difficult game of “Eat the Bun on the string without your hands” while two mediators lift the clothesline the strings are hung from.  A lot harder than it sounds—photos also attached!

Probably everyone’s favorite part though is the lunch feast!!  Definitely my favorite meal I have had on the Snehadaan campus.  I decided to go “totally” local and sat on the ground with everyone else and used my hands to eat the feast.   As per tradition, all the food is served on a big banana leaf.  Servers came around with an endless array of chutneys, curries, veggies, and GASP brown rice!  I was told there would be 27 “items” in total, but it seemed like there were a bit less.  Definitely a change of pace from the rice and sambar we get everyday with the kids!  And we even got three different types of desserts to finish.

Not the most productive days over all, but how many times in a young American’s life like mine do you get to celebrate Onam!? 

Flower decoration/carpet created by the older girls and staff at Sneha Care Home

Flower decoration/carpet created by the Snehadaan Hospital staff.  So intricate and beautiful!  They were up until 2:30 am working on this masterpiece.

Banana leafs ready for our feast.  In come our servers!!

My delicious feast (minus the desserts).  My favorites were the veggie salad (far right middle, yogurt sauce, and banana chips!)

Me and my feast!  I successfully ate all my food (well almost all of the rice...) with just my right hand!

The VERY difficult bun-eating competition.  I definitely failed this one...

 And again...