Keeping Onam spirit alive in Chennai

CHENNAI: Chennai comes alive with Onam celebrations today as Malayalis across the city come together to mark the festival.

We speak to them about their favourite Onam memories and how they are celebrating this year.

‘Making Onam special with the people around me’

My memories of Onam are all about being with my family. All my relatives would come together, so it always felt like one big family get-together. We would play games, make the pookkalam and prepare the Onasadya together.

Everyone would dress up in traditional clothes and there was so much fun and excitement throughout the day. I love the tradition and belief behind Onam that our beloved King Mahabali comes to visit us once a year.

That makes the festival even more special and meaningful. For me, Onam has always been about family, traditions, food, laughter and togetherness.

Since I’m staying away from my family, this year feels a little different and honestly, a little difficult. It won’t be as colourful or grand as the way we celebrate it back home. But I’m lucky to have my friends and a few Malayali families here in Chennai, so we’re planning to get together, cook a proper sadya and celebrate Onam together.

I’m trying to make it just as special and colourful with the people around me.

Even though I can’t celebrate with my entire family this year, I’m looking forward to creating new memories with the people I have here.

One thing I love about celebrating Onam in Chennai is how welcoming and comforting everyone is, even when you’re away from your family.

There are so many Malayalis here, and you can see people celebrating Onam with the same warmth and enthusiasm as they would back home. I’ve also seen different Malayali communities coming together to celebrate, which is really beautiful.

And I love seeing Tamil people joining in and cheering along with us. Chennai makes you feel at home during Onam, even when your actual home and family are far away.

- Sneha Haridas, lifestyle influencer

'I look forward to inji puli and appam'

My mom is from Kannur and my dad is from Palakkad, and I have been celebrating Onam in Chennai.

This is my favourite festival and we look forward to the celebrations every year.

We make a pookkalam with a different design each day for all 10 days of Onam. We also keep a Thrikkakara Appan (or Onathappan) in the centre of the pookkalam.

Getting dressed in my favourite kasavu mundu, decorating the pookkalam and preparing the special dishes for sadhya are some of my favourite parts of the festival.

We invite friends and family home for the sadya and my mom prepares all the dishes. We usually have vendakka pachadi, sambar, aviyal, olan, upperi, unniyappam and several other dishes.

I especially look forward to the inji puli and appam. After the sadhya, we make something called 'pulinchoru' for dinner. We mix leftover dishes such as olan, inji puli, rice, kalan, upperi and sambar in a kadai and have it for dinner. It may sound unusual, but I love it!

For dessert, ada pradhaman is my favourite. My mom also makes jackfruit payasam, which is another special treat during Onam.

- Nikitha M Babu, entrepreneur

'I continue Onam traditions with my daughter'

We invite friends over for Onasadya every year, and I continue the tradition with my mom and daughter.

Everyone looks forward to sitting down and sharing a meal together. We start the morning by making the pookalam and I always look forward to the sadya too. Aviyal is one of my favourites, but I love inji puli the most.

And when it comes to payasam, it has to be palada. Growing up in Chennai, I feel our traditions have remained much the same. As I grew older, my role changed too. I started helping my mom with the preparations and now I take more responsibility for setting things up.

My daughter is growing up watching us and becoming part of these traditions too. That, for me, is what makes Onam special.

- Varsha Menon, architect

'What is Onam without your chosen family?'

This Onam, I couldn’t make it to Kerala for the festivities. With the holidays falling in the middle of the week, getting a ticket home was akin to winning a lottery.

While my family back home was sad that I wouldn’t be joining them, I’m glad to have my Chennai Malayali gang here to make up for it.

Thankfully, our Onam celebrations began at the office with a pookalam and the much-awaited sadya. Our HR team did not disappoint the food felt surprisingly homely.

We spent the rest of the day playing games, celebrating with our non-Malayali colleagues and sharing the spirit of Onam with everyone around us.

But what is Onam without celebrating with your chosen family? My friends and I got together at home and, working together, pulled off our own little Onam celebration, a home away from home.

To wrap up the day, we went to catch Nivin Pauly’s latest film, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit. Two hours of laughter later, I felt like I had ended my Onam exactly the way I wanted to, surrounded by my Chennai family.

- Gouri, PR professional

‘Onam has taken on a new meaning in Chennai’

I never imagined not being home, not being in Kerala for Onam.

But adulthood has a way of surprising you. Growing up, I spent every Onam with my family, enjoying the usual traditions like homemade sadya, making DIY pookkalams, dressing up in traditional attire and having photoshoots with cousins.

Even during my initial years in Chennai for work, I held on to that tradition. I would book my train tickets well in advance and plan my Onam holidays around being back home in Kerala.

But after marriage, over the last couple of years, moving our base here and slowly starting to build a home here meant our circle of friends grew too. With it, the excitement around Onam took on a new meaning.

Hosting friends at home has now become one of the best parts of celebrating Onam in Chennai.

An early morning ride to the Koyambedu flower market to pick out flowers, setting up the onapookkalam together, cooking the sadya as a group and trying our best to recreate the taste of home, this has become our new way of celebrating Onam.

Onam, whether back then in Kerala or now in Chennai, is something we always try to make special, holding on to all its charm, warmth and happiness.

- Gopika, Communication professional

--- As told to Merin James