Onam goes online, ‘Mahabali’ visits homes, showers blessings of wellbeing

BHOPAL: Onam celebrations at United Malayalee Association remained subdued this year due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Though there were no cultural functions and gatherings as advised by the district administration, the festive spirit was high. To bring the members of the community closer, most of the activities were held online and people participated from home.To add to the festive fervour, King Mahabali visited people’s homes as there were no gathering celebrations.
As part of the celebrations, Athapoov (traditional floral rangoli) competitions were held where many people participated from their home. Similarly, a contest of having ‘most traditional Onam fest’ at home was organized.
“It is a different experience as every year people go to a function to see Mahabali but this time he visited the people at their homes. Mahabali surprised everybody by visiting the Upper Lake VIP road and gave blessings to the passers-by by waiving his hands keeping the social distance,” said O D Joseph, President of the UMA.
“King Mahabali also distributed food packets to the slum children in Gautam Nagar area. True to his benevolent nature, he mingled with the children who were surprised to see him amidst them. This was a totally different experience from the conventional way of celebrating the festival and people appreciated it,” added vice president of the UMA, Anil Nair.
The members of the community prepared Onam Shadya for the occasion, comprising 16 vegetarian dishes, served on banana leaf for lunch. However, this year, families could not invite their friends over for lunch on the big festival due to the pandemic.
“Though we could not celebrate Onam like every year, interacting online with our relatives, and participating in online competitions was fun. It was a very innovative kind of celebration this year ,” said Raji Gopinath, secretary of the ladies wing of UMA.