Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Onam titbits -2013


This is a short post covering some of the news about Onam this year.

 Author Madhutvin

1. In spite of heavy rains and high prices for almost all items, Onam was celebrated with great fervour in Kerala. It is becoming more and more a peoples’ festival than a celebration linked to any religious group.

2. There were two notable variations in the traditional Onam sadya this year. One is that in many cases the food was ordered out and not made at home. This of course saves the ladies a lot of trouble. The second is that in most hotels and clubs, non-veg items were offered at the Onam lunch. Well, times are changing. Chicken goes well with avail.
 
 Author: Rameshng

3. Whether the meal was homemade or bought out, there was a major problem in serving it – shortage of banana leaves! This year Tamil Nadu could not supply enough of these to Kerala. The alternative was plastic ‘leaves’. Most people preferred ordinary plates to these.

4. I haven’t yet got the liquor sales figures, but reports are that this year generally the consumption was lower. The government claims that its efforts to turn people away from drinks have been successful. But another view is that with the hiked up liquor prices, more people are turning to the illicit stuff. Those sales don’t reflect on the records. Less money spent, more kick obtained – forget the anti-liquor ads.
  

The first two photos are reproduced from Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The last photo is by KO Isaac, Copyright Reserved.


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Onam Greetings, 2013


Onathappan from Thrikakkara.
Photo by me. Copyright Reserved.

¯

Onathappa kudavayara,
Thiruvonakari yenthellam?
(Onathappan, paunchy man
What curries for Thiruvonam?)

Avial would certainly be one. Read

¯

Onathumpi.

 

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Four old pictures from Utharakhand

 Ganges Canal, Roorkee, 1860s.

 Mussoorie, 1860s

 Kotdwar Ghats, 1784-94

 Village Jogiana, 1784-94.

All pictures are in the Public Domain,
from Wikimedia Commons.