The Onam Feast
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Aishwarya couldn’t wait for the Onam “sadhya” or feast. Her mouth was watering thinking of all the dishes she could savor; rice, rasam, avial, payasam… the list never seemed to end. Yet something seemed to be missing. Of course, she enjoyed the sadhya, meeting all her relatives and watching the Aranmula boat race but somehow she felt that her Onam wasn’t complete. She decided to join her grandmother in completing the beautiful Pookkalam or flower carpet. She went to outside the house and saw that her grandmother was telling the story of Onam to a small urchin whom Aishwarya had seen many times but never spoken to. She watched as her grandmother told the story of how Lord Vishnu took the form of Vamana or dwarf and came to the ambitious king Mahabali. He asked for 3 pieces of land and king mahabali agreed. Then lord Vishnu started growing in size until he was large enough to consider the earth and heaven as small pieces of land! Mahabali requested him to place his third step on his head. Vishnu pleased by his determination to keep promises granted Mahabali permission to meet his subjects in Kerela once a year. After reciting the story her grandmother went inside to bring more flowers. Aishwarya went and asked the small girl, “What’s your name?” “Meenakshi.” “That’s a nice name.” She invited meenakshi, whom she found out was an orphan, to the Onam sadhya. Helping another person to celebrate her favorite festival made her Onam perfectly complete again.
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