Page 16 - Keralite Magazine _2020

KERALITE  APRIL 20 20 35
equally by people of all faiths and castes. (In fact, So in many ways, Onam has always had a very
Christians and Muslims feel as much "ownership" of special and unique place in my heart. As a young
this festival as Hindus do; I discovered, for instance, child, our family could only make our bi-annual
that Onam is celebrated in Gambia, western Africa, visits to our ancestral tharavadu during the school
by the small and entirely Christian Malayalee summer and Christmas vacations, so Onam in
community there, with great fanfare.) Kerala was never a possibility back then. But even
then, my late father, who was an extraordinarily
2008 was a particularly special Onam celebration
for me. That was the year when for the first time, I active individual within the local Malayalee
finally managed to get an opportunity to celebrate community wherever he lived, would ensure that
the festival as a Malayalee in Kerala. Not that I each year, our family would gear up in full strength
hadn’t celebrated Onam before. But I just hadn't for the week long festivities, whether in Mumbai,
been to Kerala at Onam-time. I have more than Kolkata or Delhi, and, of course, its chef-d'œuvre,
made up for that every year since. (and my favourite meal as a committed vegetarian),
the trademark onam sadya.
Two years later the celebration became even more
memorable, since Onam of The sadya, a flavourful collection of every possible
2010 marked the day after I local Kerala dish that
married my wife, the late comes together to mark a
Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, So in many ways, delectable culinary riot of
at a small ceremony in my tastes in one’s unsuspecting
ancestral home in Onam has always had a palate, is symbolically, in
Palakkad, on the eve of very special and unique many ways, a reflection of the
Onam. The o cial function place in my heart. remarkable coming together
was followed by a of our shared Malayalee ethos,
reception the next day, the As a young child, a phenomenon I call the
morning of Thiruvonam, our family could only ‘Malayali miracle’ -a community
following which we shared make our bi-annual visits that has practised openness
our first sadya together at and tolerance from time
the Sree Chitra Home, in to our ancestral tharavadu immemorial; which has
Thiruvananthapuram, in the during the school summer made religious and ethnic
company of the less and Christmas vacations, diversity a part of its daily
privileged - an annual tradition life rather than a source of
I have followed since my division; which has overcome
first election campaign in caste discrimination and
2007, over a decade ago. Not that it was her first class oppression through education, land reforms,
Onam either; with a larger number of Malayalee and political democracy; which has given its
friends in both Dubai and in Canada (the two parts working men and women greater rights and a
of the world she spent a significant time in) and her higher minimum wage than anywhere else in India;
love for avial and coconut based preparations, and which has honoured its women and enabled
Sunanda, though born a Kashmiri Pandit, them to lead productive, fulfilling and empowered
celebrated the festival like a bona fide Keralite. Alas, lives. I have often remarked that if America is a
her tragic and untimely demise has now cast a melting pot that India is a thali (or given the
bittersweet shadow over the occasion but I remain circumstances, a Sadya!) a selection of sumptuous
comforted by the fact that none of the tragic events dishes in di erent bowls (and in our case spread
that followed, can take away from the fond across the vast and green banana leaf). Each tastes
memories and precious sentiments of that day, di erent, and does not necessarily mix with the
which I will always remember and cherish. next, but they belong together on the same plate,