Onam Celebration – 31^st August 2017

There’s nothing that unites Keralites as much as Onam, hailed as the national festival of Malayalees. For most of us, it is actually a nostalgic dive into the past. A time foregone when pookkalams (floral carpet) were entirely made of flowers picked from the gardens and way sides. The past that will never return when sadhyas were predominantly prepared with love and affection, rather than food grains and vegetables sprinkled with heavy doses of pesticides.

It was our humble effort to bring back that original spirit of Onam that culminated in our celebrations on the 31^st August. As this also happened to be the last working day before the college closed for holidays, the atmosphere was all the more pulsating.

There were a variety of events and the first of which was the Fashion Show – a parade of beauty and elegance - organized jointly by our college and Directorate of Industry, Idukki. It was followed by Pookkala Malsaram (floral carpet) in which all the batches in the college participated by producing brilliant pieces of designs of floral arrangement.

There were also other events such as Rotti kadi, which requires one to sink his teeth into the bits of a biscuit hanging down a piece of string of about one feet perpendicularly from a rope tied to two poles on either side of the participants, panchagusti and spoon race. Many other minor competitions were conducted to lift the students into the mood of celebration. The entire Girijyothi family, staff and students, got to savor the yummy payasam after the meal.

The final event was Vadamvali, which was ferociously bought by the participants. After a frenzied battle fought with tooth and nail, the second year computer application students earned the bragging rights of the day. Apparently, it’s just not coding and programming.

The elongated day, at last, came to an end with the prize distribution. But what would still linger in everyone’s memory for foreseeable future would be the thrilling, exciting moments of magic it has produced.