Have you ever wondered if a greeting is truly an expression of good wishes while you were flooded under a barrage of greetings? This question would never arise if the greeting were originated with true care and affection. No matter how many you received, each one will spread the true essence and fill you with positive spirit. Festivals make for great seasons and reasons to send greetings to your friends and relatives. Onam, the harvest festival of Kerala carrying the messages of love, togetherness, and sacrifice, is indeed a great occasion to greet your loved ones.

In point of view of the new generation, olden days were more complicated in terms of greeting someone. People used to take holidays during Onam and go to their village, visit friends and relatives, greet them and celebrate together. People waited for festivals to celebrate the joy of togetherness. Of course, then gradually we got busy in our lives. Tension filled job, ever increasing commitments, kid’s schools, we really couldn’t spare that much time to meet and greet. Going home for Onam is totally out of question for those who are abroad. We can’t make our loved ones happy with our presence in any manner, so why not send a greeting to send our good wishes and love? That very thought lead to the era of sending greetings by various modes. Initially many used to depend on telegrams to carry our greetings, but was not very common though. Complicated procedure and cost, all together telegrams were mostly limited to life events. Sending an Onam greeting by telegram was always rare. In case you were wondering, Indian Post Telegram code 29 was “Heartiest Onam Greetings”.

Human needs moved from daily basic goods to luxurious goods, and so did the market. Beautiful greeting cards took place of the humble telegram in the market to cater to these needs. Though initially limited to Christmas and New Year greeting cards, later on Onam cards also penetrated the market. It was a beautiful experience to buy cards, write few words, write address, paste stamp then post it. We were proud to receive one of those greeting cards and was good for collections too. Kids used to run to the postman to receive the bigger envelop other than the regular inland during festival season. We can’t leave another category of greetings which we received in regular post cards with handwritten greetings. Though then it was considered as the cheapest and weird mode of sending a greeting, in hindsight, you may taste the warmth in such a greeting from someone who couldn’t afford the beauty of the readymade greetings available in the market.

Post office style got outdated and mails and electronic cards took over people’s mind. 123Cards.com and everydaycards,com are still fresh in our minds. We just had to go to their website select a greeting card, write your message and send. We also had the option to set everything ready much in advance at our convenience and select a date to send the greeting and it would deliver the day of Onam. Moreover, we could send the same card to multiple recipients, that too with their names and personalized. What more could we need? Situation moved in such a way that we didn’t have to wait for festivals to send a greeting card. Greeting cards became available anytime and every time for various purposes. We started sending greetings on our festivals as well as on foreign festivals.

Technology advanced in a fast pace and day by day we too got busier and busier. Soon the emails and ecards got outdated and social media took over the hearts and minds of people. Social media was much easier as compared to the previously mentioned E-Card system. As we migrated to Social media, initially we sent greetings on a personal basis. Later on, one single post on our time line “Wishing all our loved ones a Very Happy Onam”. Just one single message to serve the whole purpose. Great! What a big relief. The option to “Like” the post was even bigger relief as we didn’t have to thank each and every one for the wishes. Life became much easier, isn’t it?

As we moved on, WhatsApp took over people’s heart, mind, and soul. Make a selection from the thousands of picture greetings available on the internet, send it through the broadcast list which will deliver our greetings to all in our contact list. If we have a little more time to spend, we can personalize the picture greeting by writing our name or decorate it with our own patterns. If our time schedule is tight, we can simply forward one of the greeting from the thousands we receive. Don’t be surprised if anyone receive a picture greeting from a friend with another person’s name written at the bottom of the greeting. We still don’t feel bad as we are also aware of diminishing value of these greetings.

In former times, we used to greet everyone on “Thiruvonam ” day. This concept got changed a while ago with the advancement of technology and easy access to the electronic greetings world. People started sending greetings right from the first day of Chingam , then on Atham day, another on Uthradam , and finally on Thiruvonam. If you are really in a confused state struggling to handle the over flow of greetings, just swipe the message towards your right which will show two beautiful blue tick marks as a symbol that you have seen the card. It is for our self-satisfaction as no one is really bothered If the cards are seen or not. Again, no surprise if we miss an important message from a relative on a festival day about the sad demise of someone close to you and we end up sending a “thumbs up” or a “Thank You” in reply. Thanks to the “Thumbs Up” as we use this mechanically for most of the instances, especially on festival days. Onam became an excuse to send a “forward” rather than a reason to greet a loved one!