It was wonderful to meet so many of you in person at the COMA Onam celebrations. COMA Onam 2024 was a beautiful homage to our Malayalee traditions. From the colorful Pookkalam and delicious Sadhya to the cultural programs that included Thiruvathira and Mohiniyattam, the event showcased the richness of our culture. Every year, I am truly amazed and humbled by the dedication of our volunteers working tirelessly to make the Onam celebrations a success – their efforts remind us of the importance of togetherness and create a renewed sense of connection among the patrons.
My heartfelt gratitude goes to the 2024 COMA Executive Committee and all the volunteers for orchestrating yet another memorable event for all of us. A shout out also to the performers for keeping us entertained.
Behind the scenes of the 2024 COMA Onam Sadhya – Subin Thomas
(Subin lives in Powell, Ohio with his wife Simple and two kids, Kevin and Trisha. Subin enjoys music and outdoor activities.)
Onam, one of the most significant and widely celebrated festivals in Kerala is also the most anticipated event in our community. Every year it brings together hundreds of Malayalees, fostering a sense of belonging and joy. Though the event is marked by various traditional activities and cultural programs, the grand attraction is the Onam Sadhya.
This year, like most previous years, I had the privilege of volunteering at the Onam Sadhya for approximately 600 people. Organizing and serving a traditional Onam Sadhya for the multitude was both a challenging and rewarding experience. It required meticulous planning, seamless coordination, and teamwork to deliver a satisfying meal to such a large group. The preparations began days in advance. From organizing to coordinating volunteers, every step had to be planned with precision.
We met the previous day so that we could chart out the table layout and seating arrangement, clean the tables and chairs, clean and store the paper banana leaves, organize utensils, glasses, napkins, and wipes, arrange the water station, as well as work with the EC and decor teams for any other requests.
The Sadhya volunteers were divided into two teams: a serving team and a refill team.
The sheer number of people meant that food refills had to be immediate, and ensuring that no dish ran out before everyone had been served was a constant concern. But another major challenge was ensuring that the entire Sadhya wrapped up by 2 PM so that the cultural programs could start on time, particularly because the venue had curfews.
With the time constraint in mind, we had to be extremely efficient with the serving process. The serving and refill teams needed to coordinate perfectly to ensure that every guest was served promptly, without rushing through the experience or compromising the quality of service.
The actual day of the Sadhya was a whirlwind of activities. We started by unloading food trays from the truck early in the morning, ensuring that every dish was transferred into the serving containers and stationed at the right spot. It was vital to keep track of all 15-20 dishes traditionally served during Sadhya, making sure everything from the Avial to the Payasam was ready on time.
Serving began at 11:30 AM as soon as the guests were seated. The serving team moved swiftly, placing clean banana leaves in front of each guest, following the traditional order of serving – starting with pickles, banana chips, and progressing through the vegetable dishes, rice, and curries. It required careful coordination, as we couldn’t afford any gaps in service, especially with such a large crowd.
It was fascinating to see how well the team functioned under pressure. Everyone knew their station, whether it was refilling rice or serving sambar, and the flow of service remained steady. Communication was key – we had team leaders overseeing different sections of the venue, ensuring smooth coordination between the kitchen and serving areas. Though the team worked under pressure, we didn’t forget to have the occasional fun by sharing banana chips, having a cup of payasam, cracking jokes, etc.
One of the most fulfilling aspects of this experience was seeing the joy on people’s faces. There is something incredibly rewarding about being part of such a traditional and significant cultural event. As we served each dish, folks would smile, offer their thanks, and often engage in conversation, creating a sense of community that made all the hard work worthwhile.
Being part of the Sadhya team and serving a Sadhya at this massive scale taught me invaluable lessons in teamwork, coordination, and adaptability. It has also deepened my appreciation for the cultural significance of the Sadhya, as it is not just a meal, but an experience that embodies tradition, hospitality, and togetherness.
The process of serving a Sadhya is not just about the food; it’s about bringing people together and creating a shared experience. It was heartwarming to see families, friends, and even strangers seated together, enjoying the meal, and celebrating the spirit of Onam.
My Experience at the COMA Onam Festival – Devika Rajan
(Devika is an 8th grader at Liberty Middle School. Her hobbies include reading, singing, and playing the flute. She performed dance at the Onam festival this year. She is the daughter of Mauja and Dr. Rajesh Rajan.)
Attending the COMA Onam event was a beautiful journey into my culture and reinforced my understanding of what Onam represents. As soon as I arrived, I was greeted by the stunning Pookalam that decorated the entrance. The vibrant colors and intricate designs reminded me of the Pookalam my mom used to create at our front door.
One of my favorite parts of the celebration was the Onam Sadhya. The spread was incredible, featuring an array of delicious sides paired with rice. I enjoy the annual tradition of feasting on a banana leaf.
The event also showcased Kerala’s rich cultural heritage. The introductory performance highlighted various traditional art forms including Theyyam which was new to me. I was thrilled to watch, especially since my mother was part of this performance. My brother also had his first performance this Onam which made it even more special. In addition, everyone attending wore beautiful traditional attire, which added to the festive atmosphere.
Another highlight of Onam was the entry of the Maveli, which was celebrated by everyone in attendance. The entry of Maveli was nice to watch as it was accompanied by the lively sound of Chenda and Pulikali.
Performing at COMA was an unforgettable experience for me and my friend Gauri. After countless hours of practice, stepping onto the stage felt exhilarating. Sharing our dance with the audience and receiving their applause made all the hard work worthwhile.
Overall, the COMA Onam event was an enriching experience that allowed me to celebrate my culture in a meaningful way. It reminded me of the importance of traditions and the joy they bring to our lives. I enjoy all COMA celebrations as they allow for me to gather with all my friends and have a great time.
COMA volunteering from a youth perspective – Adithya Menon
(Adithya Menon is a senior at Olentangy Liberty High School. In his free time, he likes to be active by going on hikes, playing basketball with friends, and working out. He is the son of Deepa and Jay Menon.)
Being part of the COMA Youth Wing has been an amazing experience. As a volunteer, I’ve participated in many community activities, like helping with the super fun Onam celebrations. Serving the traditional Sadhya meal was a blast because being part of such an important cultural event felt great. I also helped with registration, making sure everyone got their wristbands and checked in without a hitch.
But that’s not all! We’ve been busy planning cool events and programs for adults and kids. One exciting event coming up is a community hike on October 12th. It’s a perfect way to bring everyone together and enjoy some time outdoors. Getting involved in planning these activities has been awesome for my leadership skills and has taught me a lot about what goes on behind the scenes of running an event.
What’s been cool is working with people who are all about making a difference in our community. It’s been great for learning the ins and outs of organizing events.
Oh, and did I mention? You also earn service hours for all the time you put into helping out through this program. Overall, my time with the COMA Youth Wing has been super rewarding. I’ve grown as a leader and gotten more involved in my community. I wish many more youth would get involved as it’s a great way to have fun and community bonding, and I can’t wait to see what’s next!
The Joy and Challenges of Organizing Onam Sadhya in Columbus, Ohio – Sachinlal Sugathan
(Sachin is a COMA Onam Food Committee volunteer. He has been an active member of COMA from 2011, and lives with his wife Preeti and daughter Sahasra in Galena, Ohio.)
For the past 12 years, I have had the privilege of serving on the food committee for the Central Ohio Malayalee Association (COMA) during our annual Onam celebrations. Every year, we work hard to bring the traditional Onam sadhya to our community – a feast that evokes memories of home, heritage, and the unity of Malayalees. However, organizing a Sadhya in a city like Columbus, Ohio, comes with its unique set of challenges, which we have experienced firsthand.
The Complexity of Onam Sadhya
The Onam Sadhya is no ordinary meal. It is an elaborate spread of over 25 different curries and side dishes, each representing the cultural richness of Kerala. What makes it even more challenging is that every region of Kerala has its own variations of these curries. For instance, a simple Avial, Kootucurry, or Erissery can taste vastly different depending on whether it’s made by someone from one part of Kerala versus another region. This means that satisfying the expectations of one person can easily disappoint another. Finding a middle ground that appeals to the diverse palates of our Malayalee community is an intricate balancing act.
Limitations in Columbus
In larger cities with a significant Malayalee population, organizing a massive feast is somewhat more manageable. However, in a city like Columbus, the situation is quite different. None of the local restaurants have kitchens or utensils large enough to accommodate the volume of food required for a traditional Onam Sadhya. As a result, they are forced to cook in batches, often starting as early as midnight the day before. This can compromise the freshness of the food, sometimes leading to one or two dishes spoiling by the time they are served. Keeping over 25 dishes fresh and consistent over such a long period is no easy task. On top of that, the logistics of transporting all these dishes from the restaurant to the event venue adds another layer of complexity.
How Bigger Malayalee Organizations Tackle These Challenges
I’ve had the chance to connect with Malayalees from major regions in states like New York, Georgia, and Florida, and it’s evident that they manage the Sadhya logistics more smoothly, thanks to their greater resources. Many large Malayalee organizations in these cities have invested in custom-made utensils, burners, and even giant pots designed specifically for cooking and serving the Kerala Sadhya. These items are stored in dedicated storage units year-round, ready to be used during festivals like Onam.
Some organizations even go as far as flying in chefs from Kerala or other states to ensure that the Sadhya tastes as authentic as possible. These chefs, with their expertise, make the preparation of the meal smoother and closer to how it is traditionally done in Kerala. The key difference, of course, is the financial backing that these larger organizations enjoy. With significant sponsorships and donations pouring in annually, they have the budget to tackle such logistical challenges with ease. In comparison, COMA operates with more limited resources, making it all the more difficult to deliver a flawless Sadhya.
A Labor of Love
Despite these challenges, I have seen the incredible dedication and teamwork within COMA’s food committee. Our volunteers and local chefs go above and beyond to make the Onam Sadhya experience as memorable and authentic as possible. Every year, we should reflect on our experiences, adapt, and grow, motivated by our collective love for our culture and the passion to bring a taste of Kerala to our close-knit community in Columbus.
While we may not have the large-scale resources of bigger cities, our passion and commitment to delivering a traditional Sadhya, complete with all its complexities, are what truly set us apart. With continued support from the community, we can continue to make our Onam celebrations a cherished event for all.
In the end, organizing the Onam Sadhya is a labor of love – one that brings us closer together as a community and reminds us of the beautiful traditions we hold dear.
Disclaimer: Vocabulary enhanced using generative AI.
As August draws to a close and summer winds down, we are looking forward to September – a time of celebration for us Malayalees. Onam is a time to celebrate prosperity, abundance, and togetherness. However, as we revel in the festivities, let us also remember those affected by the recent tragedies in Wayanad, Kerala.
COMA’s Wayanad fundraiser is dedicated to supporting the victims who have lost their homes and livelihoods. All proceeds will go directly to the Kerala Government Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF). You can contribute to this vital cause by sending your donations via Zelle to coma.officails@gmail.com.
Thank you for your generosity and support during this critical time.
The COMA Onam program is on September 14th, Saturday. More details to follow. Get your tickets here:
(One half of his brain has gone nomad and the other has gone in search of the first. Glorifying his random ramblings and packaging it is his main hobby! Otherwise sane and grounded.)
സംഗീതമേ അമര സല്ലാപമേ!
എന്തിരോ എന്തോ! എന്തായാലും സംഗീതം എന്നത് ഒരു മഹാസാഗരം ആണെന്ന് പറയുമെങ്കിലും, എന്നെ സംബന്ധിച്ചു അത് മുല്ലപെരിയാർ ഡാം പോലെയാണ്.. ഓരോ മഴക്കാലത്തും അത് പൊട്ടും പൊട്ടും എന്ന് വിചാരിക്കും, പക്ഷെ ഒരിക്കലും പൊട്ടൂല.. (ഇത് കുറച്ചു ലോങ്ങ് ആണ്, ക്ഷമയോടെ വായിച്ചു തീർക്കണം എന്നപേക്ഷിക്കുന്നു ☺)
സംഗീത സപര്യ തുടങ്ങുന്നത് വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് മുൻപാണ്.. രണ്ടിലോ, മൂന്നിലോ പഠിക്കുന്ന കാലം. നാട്ടിലെ അമ്പലത്തിൽ എല്ലാകൊല്ലത്തേയും പോലെ 41 ദിവസത്തെ ചിറപ്പ് മഹോത്സവം നടക്കുന്നു. ഓരോ ദിവസത്തെയും ചിറപ്പ് ഓരോ കുടുംബക്കാരുടെ വകയാണ്. അന്ന് നമ്മുടെ ചിറപ്പ് ദിവസം, വൈകുന്നേരം ദീപാരാധനയും കഴിഞ്ഞു ഒരു ഭജന ഉണ്ട് . സ്വാമി അപ്പൂപ്പൻ നേതൃത്വം നൽകുന്ന ഭക്തിനിർഭരമായ ഭജന. കൂടെ ഏറ്റു ചൊല്ലാൻ ഞങ്ങൾ കുറെ കിഡ്സും മുതിർന്നവരും. അമ്പലം മലമുകളിൽ ആരുന്നത് കൊണ്ടും, കോളാമ്പിയിലൂടെ ലൈവ് സംപ്രേക്ഷണം ചെയ്തിരുന്നതുകൊണ്ടും, ഇത് നാട്ടുകാർക്ക് മുഴുവൻ ഉള്ള ഭജൻ ആയിരുന്നു. അപ്പൂപ്പൻ പാടുന്നു, എല്ലാരും ഏറ്റു പാടുന്നു.
ആവേശത്തോടെ ഞാനും പാടി. പാടി എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാൽ തകർത്തു പാടി..
ഞാൻ സർവം മറന്നു പാടിക്കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു. (സർഗം എന്ന സിനിമയിലെ ആ രംഗം ഓർമ്മ വരുന്നുണ്ടാകും, അല്ലെ.. ഏതാണ്ട് അതുപോലെ). അധികം നീണ്ടില്ല,അതിനു അനുവദിച്ചില്ല എന്ന് പറയുന്നതാകും ശരി. സ്വാമി അപ്പൂപ്പൻ വിറയാർന്ന കൈകൊണ്ടു അമ്മയെ ചേർത്ത് പിടിച്ചു പറഞ്ഞു. “ആ ചെറുക്കനെ ഒന്നെണീപ്പിച്ചു വിട്, അല്ലെങ്കിൽ അവൻ നാട്ടുകാരെ ഇന്ന് ഒറക്കില്ല! ഇങ്ങനെ ഉണ്ടോ ഒരു കീറൽ?!”
ആ ചെറിയ പന്തലിൽ നിന്ന് അമ്മയുടെ തണുത്ത കയ്യും പിടിച്ചു ഇറങ്ങിയത് ഇപ്പോഴും ഓർമയുണ്ട്. അന്ന് തീർന്നതാ തിരുമേനി, ഈ സ്വാമി അപ്പൂപ്പന്മാരോടുള്ള ബഹുമാനം!
പിന്നെ ഒരു വാശിയാരുന്നു, സംഗീതം പഠിച്ചേ അടങ്ങു. ഒടുവിൽ വയലിൻ പഠിക്കാനായി ചെന്ന് കേറിയത് ഒരു സിങ്കത്തിന്റെ മടയിൽ. മൂന്നുമാസമായിട്ടും അങ്ങേരു എന്നെ വയലിനിൽ ഒന്ന് തൊടീച്ചില്ല! എന്നുമാത്രം അല്ല, ആഗ്രഹം അറിയിച്ചപ്പോൾ പറഞ്ഞു, നീ ആദ്യം സ രി ഗ മ എന്നൊന്ന് തെറ്റാതെ പറഞ്ഞു പടിക്കു, പിന്നെ പാടിപ്പടിക്കണം, എന്നിട്ടല്ലേ വയലിൻ!? ഗുരുവിനെ മുണ്ടു പൊക്കി കാണിച്ചു അന്ന് തുടങ്ങിയ യാത്ര.. സഫറോങ്കി സിന്ദഗി, കബിനഹി കഥം ഖുദം!
ഭഗത് സിങ്, നെപ്പോളിയൻ, കുഞ്ഞാലിമരക്കാർ, ഈ മൂന്ന് പേരും ആണ് എൻ്റെ ഐഡോൾസ്! തോറ്റമ്പിയവർ ആണെങ്കിലും, ജയിക്കാൻ വേണ്ടി പൊരുതിയവർ ആണ്. ഒരിക്കലെങ്കിലും എനിക്ക് ജയിച്ചേ മതിയാകു. സ്കൂളിൽ സബ്ജൂനിയർ ലളിതഗാന മത്സരം നടക്കുന്നു. സ്കൂളിൽ പുതിയതായതു കൊണ്ടും, ആളിനെ അത്രക്കങ്ങട് വശമില്ലാത്തതുകൊണ്ടും, സീനിയർസ് നമ്മളെയും മത്സരിക്കാൻ കേറ്റി. ഗാന്ധി ഹൌസിന്റെ അഭിമാനമാകാൻ ഞാൻ സ്റ്റേജിൽ കയറി “ചിങ്ങ തിരുവോണ സൂര്യോദയം” രണ്ടര കട്ടക്ക് പിടിച്ചങ്ങു പാടി. കറക്റ്റ് ടൈമിൽ പാടി നിർത്തി. ഫുൾ നിശബ്ദത.. സ്റ്റേജിൽ നിന്ന് ഇറങ്ങി വന്ന എന്നോട് അന്നത്തെ മ്യൂസിക് ടീച്ചർ ആയിരുന്ന (ജഡ്ജ് കൂടെ ആയിരുന്നു) ആൻ്റണി സാർ പറഞ്ഞു, ” നീ കറക്റ്റ് ടൈമിംഗ് ആരുന്നു . ഓൺ ടൈം പാടി നിർത്തി. ഒരു രണ്ടു സെക്കന്റ് കൂടെ നീണ്ടിരുന്നേൽ ചിലപ്പോ നീയാ മൈക്ക് അങ്ങ് വിഴുങ്ങിയേനെ!”. ഓ ഡാർകോടു ഡാർക്ക്! നിർത്തി അങ്ങ് അപമാനിക്കുവാരുന്നന്നെ..
സംഗീതം ആദ്യ പ്രണയം പോലെ ആണ്.. അടുക്കാൻ ശ്രമിക്കുന്തോറും അകന്നുകൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കും. എന്തിനും ഒരു അന്ത്യം ഉണ്ടാകണമല്ലോ. കാലങ്ങൾ കഴിഞ്ഞു, ബിൽ ഗേറ്റ്സ് മൈക്രോസോഫ്റ്റ് ഉണ്ടാക്കി, HCL കമ്പ്യൂട്ടർ കണ്ടു പിടിച്ചു, സംഗീതം Smule-ലൂടെ കൂടുതൽ ജനകീയം ആയി. ഒരു അവസാന ശ്രമം എന്ന നിലക്ക് ഞാൻ Smule വെച്ച് ഒന്ന് പാടി. എല്ലാർക്കും ഷെയർ ചെയ്യുന്നതിന് മുന്നേ ഞാൻ തന്നെ ഒന്ന് കേട്ട് നോക്കി. ശിവനെ, ഓർമിപ്പിക്കല്ലേ! പെറ്റ തള്ള സഹിക്കൂല!
സ്വാമി അപ്പൂപ്പനോടും, വയലിൻ മാസ്റ്ററോടും, ആൻ്റണി സാറിനോടും കാൽക്കൽ വീണു മാപ്പപേക്ഷിച്ചുകൊണ്ടു നിർത്തുന്നു! Smule-നു നന്ദി!
Pedaling for a Cure
(After working in Louisville and St. Louis, Praveen moved to Columbus in 2011 with his wife Priya and daughter Gowri. As a family, they enjoy all outdoor activities, whether it’s camping, hiking, biking, or playing tennis. They both hail from the outskirts of the serene city of Trivandrum.)
Pelotonia weekend was vibrant and energetic as over 6,500 riders navigated Central Ohio on routes ranging from 20 to 190 miles. Riders on routes shorter than 100 miles completed their journey in a single day, while those tackling the 155- and 190-mile routes spanned their ride across both Saturday and Sunday. This year’s event, held from August 2-4, kicked off with a lively celebration at McFerson Commons on Friday evening, featuring a performance by the popular indie pop band Clubhouse. Bike check-ins were also available to help riders prepare for their early morning starts the next day.
Participating in Pelotonia was a memorable experience for me—a ride I had hoped to join since moving to Columbus in late 2011. After finally signing up in 2024, I joined my Big Lots team. I had previously taken part in events such as the Susan G. Komen 5K, Fight for Air 40-floor stair climb, and Warrior Dash. Pelotonia was the next challenge on my list, driven by both the demanding ride and the meaningful cause behind it.
Over the past decade, I’ve lost many close relatives to cancer and witnessed others overcome their battles with the disease. This ride was dedicated to all those who lost their lives fighting cancer and to those who fought back with incredible strength. While we often masked our sorrows behind smiles, the support from everyone cheering us on made the experience profoundly emotional.
For this event, I tackled a 50-mile route – thanks to the COMA bike club for helping me find my comfort zone in biking. The ride was filled with participants setting their own pace, and the energy on the course was truly inspiring. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have participated in this year’s ride and to have contributed to the larger cause of finding a cure for cancer.
I am still recovering from the exhilarating experience of COMA’s 2024 inaugural event, “Kaliyattom”. The all day event was a resounding success. Enthusiastic participation and fierce competition made the games event truly memorable for the participants. Congratulations to all the winners, and best wishes to everyone else who participated for next time.
The cultural programs showcased captivating dance performances, a magic show, trivia, and the comedy skit was a hilarious addition. The unique glow party that followed was undeniably a hit with all ages. Thank you to the Executive Committee of 2024 for organizing such an enjoyable event!
If you missed the event, please use the links below for the event highlights, photos, and videos.
Cornhole Winner: Anjan Harishankar Runner-up: Jiya Jay
COMA Onam Sadya Coordination – A behind the scenes introspective – Valsan Palika
(Valsan is a long time resident of Columbus and a very active member of the Malayalee community. He lives in Lewis Center with wife Vijaya and two children, Hrishikesh and Niranjan. He hails from Kannur.)
Onam is Kerala’s most significant festival, marking the pinnacle of our annual celebrations. Legend has it that Kerala once thrived under the benevolent rule of King Mahabali of great wisdom and compassion. His era was characterized by fairness and prosperity, ensuring the well-being of his subjects, or ‘praja,’ to the utmost degree. His strength and popularity made even the Gods envious, and he was sent to the depths of ‘Pathalam’ by Vamana. It is believed that Mahabali visits us each year during Onam, symbolizing the spirit of unity cherished by Keralites. The festival is during the Malayalam month of Chingam, which is around August or September. It lasts for about ten days, and the main day is called Thiru Onam. This is when everyone takes part in lots of rituals, celebrations, and cultural events to mark the occasion.
Back home, Onam events are packed with various activities like Puli Kali, Thiruvathira Kali, and Vallam Kali, in addition to the traditional Pookkalam and Onam Sadya. Here in Columbus, we enjoy a day packed with cultural activities, beautiful Pookkalam designs, a traditional delicious Ona Sadya served in vazha ila, and the cherished visit of Mahabali. We even had Pulikali during our 2023 Onam celebrations! Vallam Kali may be planned soon! It is heartwarming to see Malayalee women, men, and children dressed in traditional attire, singing Onam songs, and showcasing other talents, sharing Onam memories, and relishing the Sadya together; it transports us back to Kerala on that day!
History
It all began several years ago with just a few Malayalee families from Columbus and Dayton coming together in Columbus to celebrate Onam as a community event. With hundreds of families moving to Columbus in recent years, it has evolved into the biggest gala event organized by COMA, bringing together the entire community in celebration!
The COMA Onam celebration is thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated by the community, becoming a cherished highlight of the year. Finding a suitable venue, coordinating cultural events, organizing a traditional Sadya, and managing the flow of events on the day are all incredibly complex tasks that require careful planning and coordination. The event’s resounding success is attributed to the meticulous planning and execution by the COMA executive committee, drawing from continuous learnings from past events. A vast volunteer base for COMA works tirelessly for weeks leading up to the event, ensuring its seamless realization.
Having been part of the volunteer group organizing COMA events for over 25 years, I can attest that organizing Onam is no small feat. It stands out as the most complex event to coordinate, largely due to the intricate arrangements needed for the Sadya, the centerpiece of the celebration. Here, I’ll delve into the details of how the Sadya is planned and executed.
In the early years, the Sadya was entirely dependent on volunteer efforts, with the number of guests estimated beforehand. However, this approach posed two significant challenges: the risk of either shortages or excess of Sadya items, and the potential for missing dishes if a volunteer assigned to cook a particular item couldn’t attend the event. Over the years, several incremental enhancements have been adopted to address these challenges and refine the Sadya planning process to its current, mature state.
Planning
The success of the Sadya hinges on three crucial factors:
Accurate Guest Count: Ensuring an accurate count of guests, including children, is essential to guarantee there is sufficient food for everyone. This involves thorough planning and communication to gather RSVPs and anticipate attendance accurately. Our EC does a fantastic job in communicating early and getting the expected attendance well in advance of the event.
Reliable Vendor Selection: Finding a trustworthy vendor to prepare the Sadya is paramount. This vendor must be capable of delivering high-quality, authentic dishes in the required quantity and within the specified timeframe. Thorough vetting and negotiation are essential to secure a reliable partnership. Indeed, the availability of vendors specializing in authentic Kerala dishes is a significant challenge as locally, there is only one such vendor available. Starting a local business that offers Kerala cuisine presents a promising opportunity to meet the demand for authentic dishes!
Timely Service: Serving the complete Sadya in a timely fashion to the entire crowd is critical for guest satisfaction. This requires efficient coordination among volunteers, vendors, and event organizers to ensure smooth and prompt delivery of the dishes, maintaining the integrity and freshness of the meal.
The Sadya
Onam Sadya is a lavish feast comprising a wide array of dishes, each adding its unique flavor and texture to the meal, satisfying to different tastes you have. While the exact dishes may vary based on regional preferences and personal taste, some common dishes and savories include:
Avial: A mixed vegetable curry cooked in coconut gravy, seasoned with curry leaves and coconut oil. The story of the origins of Avial is indeed an intriguing one from the Indian epic Mahabharata. According to the legend, Bhima, one of the Pandava brothers, disguised himself as a cook named Vallalan during their exile in the forest. One day, unexpected guests arrived, he gathered whatever vegetables and leftover ingredients he had, cooked them together to create a delicious dish, which became known as Avial.
Ghee & Parippu Curry: This is the first course. One of the distinctive features of Parippu Curry is its adaptability to regional variations and personal preferences. While the basic recipe remains consistent, different regions and households may add their unique twists by incorporating ingredients like grated coconut, garlic, ginger, or even vegetables like pumpkin or ash gourd. Some may opt for a smoother consistency, while others prefer a slightly chunky texture. It is extremely hard to serve a Parippu Curry that satisfies everyone!
Kaalan, Olan, Pulissery, Pachadi, Thoran(s), and Koottu are indeed essential components of an authentic Onam Sadya, each offering unique flavors and textures to the feast. Additionally, Pappadam, pickles, pazham and varuthupperi serve as the perfect accompaniments to the Sadya, adding extra crunch, tanginess, and spice to the feast.
While Sambar and Rasam may not be traditionally exclusive to Kerala cuisine, they have become integral parts of Onam Sadya due to their popularity and versatility in South Indian cuisine.
Prathaman and Payasams indeed stand as the crowning glory of the Onam Sadya, offering a delightful end to the meal. There are several varieties such as ada prathaman, parippu prathaman, chakka prathaman, pal payasam, and palada (names and exact preparation varies).
Together, these dishes form a symphony of flavors and textures, showcasing the rich culinary heritage of Kerala and making Onam Sadya a truly memorable culinary experience. Overall, Onam is a joyous occasion that brings people together, irrespective of caste, creed, or religion, to celebrate the spirit of unity, prosperity, and happiness. It is a time to cherish traditions, create lasting memories, and spread love and goodwill among all.
Catering
A significant amount of work happens behind the scenes to ensure the successful serving of the Sadya, which is the most critical aspect of Onam celebrations. A dedicated group of lead volunteers and executive committee representatives initiates the planning process several months prior to the event day.
Identifying vendors, primarily restaurants specializing in traditional Kerala cuisine, is a meticulous process for us. We consider factors such as reputation, reliability, food quality, and cost-effectiveness. We meet with them to discuss our requirements, negotiate pricing, and finalize agreements. Authenticity and taste are paramount, so we always taste and affirm the quality before finalizing the contract, especially if the vendor is new to us. We pay close attention to the timing of preparation, delivery, packaging, and transportation to ensure freshness, timely delivery, and ease of serving.
Looking ahead, we are exploring novel options for future events. One exciting idea is COMA organizing a community cooking event for Onam Sadya. Here, skilled and interested volunteers can come together for a fun night of preparing the Sadya themselves! This not only fosters community spirit but also allows us to showcase our culinary talents and traditions in a more hands-on way. If you have the skill and interest, please feel free to reach out to organizers well in advance of the next Onam!
Serving
A detailed and organized Sadya serving plan is prepared. Volunteers are assigned specific tasks, led by experienced team members. A schedule ensures tasks are completed on time.
Food Reception and Setup: Volunteers receive, label, and store food from vendors. Then the team arranges the food counters in the dining area and sets up serving utensils.
Serving: Volunteers serve the item portions out of each dish onto banana leaves.
Table Organization: Organizers ensure guest comfort and supply tables with necessities.
Cleanup: A dedicated crew maintains cleanliness throughout the event and ensures tables are ready to set up for the next ‘pandhis’ quickly.
There are several other things to be arranged and kept ready for serving the Sadya. These include banana Leaves to serve the Sadya in traditional way. Ample quantities of serving utensils, plates, glasses, napkins, and cleaning supplies are arranged.
This structured approach ensures a seamless and enjoyable Sadya experience for all guests.
We visit the event venue to assess suitability for hosting the Sadhya, considering factors like space, seating capacity, accessibility, and facilities. A floor plan is prepared detailing the layout of dining tables, food stations, serving areas, and guest seating arrangements, keeping in mind compliance with safety regulations, and obtaining necessary permits or permissions if required. We also plan for contingencies with a mitigation plan. The venue set up is completed with the help of volunteers on the previous night before the event – including setting up tables, cleaning the banana leaves, etc. The event and excitement start a day early for the volunteers!
Onam Day
On the day of the event, all preparations culminate in a vibrant celebration. Volunteers arrive early at the venue to receive food from vendors and ensure it is stored correctly. The setup of the venue and tables is thoroughly reviewed for a smooth service, and food items are transferred to serving containers. The banana leaf, or vazha ila, is laid out, and servers serve condiments and Sadya items in a specific order. Guests are seated orderly, and rice, parippu, and other main items are served. Each item is served multiple times to ensure guests’ satisfaction. Towards the end, varieties of payasam are served, typically by youth volunteers, either in cups, or in the banana leaf for those who prefer a more traditional experience.
It brings immense satisfaction to the organizers and volunteers to see guests enjoying and savoring the satisfying Sadya. The vibrant colors of the dishes, the aromatic spices, and the joyful chatter of friends and family create a warm and inviting atmosphere. Their smiles and expressions of satisfaction reflect the shared joy of the occasion. It’s a testament to the rich culinary heritage and hospitality of Kerala, bringing people together to celebrate and enjoy the simple pleasures of good food and good company. Knowing that we’ve played a part in creating memorable experiences and fostering a sense of community and joy fills us with pride and fulfillment. It’s moments like these that remind us why we come together year after year to celebrate the richness of our culture and traditions during Onam.
The work for volunteers continues even after every guest has enjoyed their Sadya. They are responsible for cleaning up the venue, setting tables and chairs back to their original arrangement, tidying up the kitchen area, removing trash, and ensuring all utensils are cleaned and returned to their proper places. Additionally, any rented or borrowed items need to be accounted for and returned to their respective vendors. This post-event cleanup is just as crucial as the preparations beforehand, ensuring that the venue is left in pristine condition and ready for the next event. It’s the dedication and hard work of these volunteers that contribute to the overall success and smooth running of the Onam celebration.
Final Thoughts
Year after year, we refine and improve our processes based on past experience to ensure our guests have a fantastic Sadya experience and that the serving is completed within the scheduled duration. This not only ensures that cultural events start on time but also keeps the plan of Onam events on schedule. By learning from past successes and challenges, we continuously enhance our efficiency and effectiveness, ultimately contributing to the seamless and enjoyable celebration of Onam for everyone involved. This tradition of improvement and knowledge transfer is passed from one executive committee to the next, ensuring continuity and growth in our organizational efforts. There is also a dedicated pool of organizers and volunteers, whose numbers increase year after year, with unwavering commitment, ensuring the seamless execution of Onam and other COMA events. Their growing passion and dedication contribute to the smooth coordination and successful implementation of the celebration.
A Comparative Primer on the Films of Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak – Part 2 – Sandeep Ravindranath
(Sandeep Ravindranath is a student of the audiovisual arts. He has served as a live sound engineer for such acts as Chitravina Ravi Kiran, Nagai Muralidharan, The Carnatica Brothers, Ustad Shahed Pervez Khan and Steve Gorn among others. As an on-location sound recordist, his work on the Lebanese film What Remains was shortlisted for the Student BAFTA in 2018. He holds a Master’s degree in Music Technology from New York University and was a programmer analyst for Sony Music in Manhattan.
His directorial venture The Bookshelf dealt with the subject of growing intolerance in India and was commissioned by Perumal Murugan’s Kalachuvadu and Indira Chandrasekhar’s Tulika. In 2016, Sandeep was offered a full scholarship in the direction program at Columbia College Chicago where his thesis film Diary of an Outsider received Jury invitation from the Directors Guild of America to its Student Awards. To date, his shorts Lullaby, The Bookshelf, Santhana Gopala, Diary of an Outsider and Sub Brothers have screened at over 120 film festivals in 21 countries winning numerous awards along the way. His latest short, Anthem for Kashmir, launched by Anand Patwardhan and T.M. Krishna was censored by the right wing government of India.
Sandeep lives in Dublin, Ohio.)
The Trilogies
After Baishey Sravan, Sen would use the idea of famine again, briefly in Calcutta 71 (1972) and in Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine, 1980). All three instances reveal Mrinal Sen as an artist who studied the social and political ferment of his times and informed on them in his art, reincarnating each time with a world of fresh realizations. Calcutta 71 was the second film in his overtly political phase of filmmaking that began with the film Interview (1970). It was a reflection of the violent mood of Calcutta youth at that period of time – the Naxalite movement was at its height and Sen channeled that restlessness into an avant-garde filmmaking that defied the existing Indian cinematic conventions by mixing Brechtian alienation, the cinema verite style, and a non-narrative structure. All the films of this phase – Interview, Calcutta 71, Padatik and Chorus (the first three are known as his Calcutta Trilogy but it could easily be a tetralogy) are characterized by stylistic experimentation where form takes precedence over the dynamism of the thematic entity.
Calcutta 71 was an ideological extension of Interview, both elaborating a Marxist view of class exploitation, poverty, and hunger, resulting in a bitter commentary on the human predicament. Padatik (The Guerilla Fighter, 1973) on the other hand, made a direct political statement by probing those same Marxist values for its contradictions and asserting the need for a timely reassessment. Needless to say, the crowd that sang Mrinal Sen’s praise after Calcutta 71 called him a traitor after Padatik. Padatik was followed by Chorus (1974) which returned to the political philosophy of the earlier two films in the trilogy but was modeled as a satirical re-enactment this time, ending on a note of open revolt.
Padatik is the only film in the Calcutta Trilogy (and Chorus) without a disjunctive narrative structure revealing a distinct beginning, middle, and end. However, this structure is still “interrupted” using the stylistic devices employed in the French New Wave including freeze frames and jump cuts. There are flashbacks and found footage from two foreign films – the Argentinian revolutionary activist film, Hours of the Furnace and Joris Ivens’ documentary on the Vietnam war. There is even an entire sequence where one of the central characters in the film asks several women in a very news-reporting style, questions dealing with women’s empowerment in contemporary Indian society. Many have found these experiments in the Calcutta Trilogy distinctly Godardian and Satyajit Ray was particularly critical calling it an over indulgence in the empty ideological and stylistic posturing of European new wave cinema . While Ray himself has a trilogy on Calcutta (comprising the films Pratidwandi, Seemabaddha and Jana Aranya) that draw comparisons with Mrinal Sen’s trilogy, it is the structural experiments that mark the differences between the two. The question that Jonathan Rosenbaum asks of Luis Bunuel, “how does a sworn enemy of the bourgeois keep his identity while devoting himself to a bourgeois form [narrative cinema] in a bourgeois industry [film industry]?”, is apt for Sen as well. The answer is, “either by subverting these forms or by trying to adjust them to his own purposes.”
Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy – Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star, 1960), Komal Gandhar (The Gandhar Sublime, 1961) and Subarnarekha (The Golden Line, 1962), was the cinematic representation of the socioeconomic implications of the Partition. With these films, he illustrated the mindset of the refugees of Partition by relentlessly drawing the audience into the time and space of those left homeless and crumbling on the faded outskirts of a nation.
Meghe Dhaka Tara was an allegory for the traumatic consequences of the partition of Bengal, capturing the disintegration of a Bengali family as a result of dislocation, poverty, self-interest, and petty internal division. An impoverished family living in a refugee slum after the partition of Bengal struggles for survival and the self-sacrificing protagonist, Nita, has to give up her college studies in order to work. Through many twists and turns of the plot, she becomes the sole earning member of the family. Her elder brother Shankar, who would normally be the head of the household is irresponsible, spending his days singing, dreaming of one day becoming a great singer. He leaves for Bombay soon after, to pursue his singing career returning only at the end of the film. By this time he is an accomplished singer who has become wealthy. However, his ascent to professional and material success has come at the cost of a commensurate decline in Nita’s well being who is now wasting away with a terminal illness.
Striking in Meghe Dhaka Tara is Ghatak’s embrace of the melodramatic style which his background in theatre clearly contributed to. Far from seeing it as pejorative, Ghatak in an article defends melodrama calling it a “much-abused genre,” going on to say in a 1974 interview that “I am not afraid of melodrama, to use melodrama is one’s birthright – it is a form.” The success of Meghe Dhaka Tara, however, is that this melodrama isn’t pure escapism or pure heart-wringing sentimentality but that it exudes a tough, realist sadness – it is his paean to women’s boundless courage and strength, and an indictment of an opportunistic and oppressive social structure.
While Ghatak is known for his eccentric style, his use of the expressionist soundtrack on Meghe Dhaka Tara is certainly bold and experimental. Providing a commentary on the narrative action, Nita’s misery is accompanied by the sound of a whiplash and a hissing sound fades up and down whenever her mother walks into the picture.
In Komal Gandhar, Ghatak merged the motif of fragmentation of a revolutionary cultural movement with a broader motif, the fragmentation of a people. The disintegration of the IPTA and the ideals that it once stood for, had left its mark on Ghatak. The film brought with it an overwhelming nostalgia for the IPTA days where the protagonists struggle to find a new identity in a fast-changing environment as old values crumble. With Subarnarekha, Ghatak provides a prophetic glimpse of the future where post-independence optimism gives way to the harsh realities and disintegrating moral values that are inextricable parts of the civilized urban society. The story of Ishwar and Sita, two of a large, floating population of refugees immediately after independence, it is a bitter tale that mercilessly exposes the canker within.
The archetype of the mother dominates Ghatak’s films and Subarnarekha is no exception with the reconstruction of the Puranic tale of goddess Sati in the character of Sita. In that tale, Sati immolates herself through the fire of her concentration in order to satisfy the ethics of good womanhood because her father Daksha, is greatly opposed to Sati’s husband Shiva whom Daksha believes to be beneath their social status. In Subarnarekha, Ishwar represents Daksha, for he is a surrogate father to Sita and much like Daksha, Ishwar also has an intense dislike for her husband Abhiram because of his lower caste. With the exception of Ajantrik, all Ghatak films from the 1950s and ‘60s show a compulsive engagement with the sister-brother relationship. Thus we have Sita-Ramu of Nagarik, Mini-Kanchan of Bari Theke Paliye, Nita-Shankar of Meghe Dhaka Tara, Anasuya-Pakhi of Komal Gandhar, and Sita-Ishwar of Subarnarekha. As the film critic Moinak Biswas points out , “it is consistent with the ‘obsession’ with the mother archetype in [these] films that the brother and sister should form the primary basis of love.”
The music used in Subarnarekha is another critical aspect. Sita sings a Tagore song much like Nita in Meghe Dhaka Tara. The song, which describes the rural Bengal landscape is used to illustrate the innocence and openness of the world of children and to serve as a counterpoint to the degraded and restricted environment of Sita and Ishwar as adults. Another piece of music used in the film – the one in the party scene and Sita’s suicide scene, is the same music from the orgy scene in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. Ghatak in an essay writes, “There are times when a tune used in a film by someone else is used to make an observation, the way I myself have done. The music that accompanies the scene of orgy at the end of La Dolce Vita, where Fellini lashes out at the whole of Western civilization, is known as Patricia. I sought to make a similar statement in my Subarnarekha about my own land, this Bengal, so sparkling with intellect. So I have used the same music in the bar scene [and in Sita’s suicide scene], to make a suggestion. The music helped me say a lot of things.”
Later Films
Sen returned to the backdrop of famine once again in Akaler Sandhane (In Search of Famine, 1980), this time in the self-introspection phase of his filmmaking. The films starting with Ekdin Pratidin (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn, 1979) to Khandhar (The Ruins, 1983), move away from the anger and bitter satire of his earlier phase to develop an attitude of concern and compassion for the urban middle class of Calcutta bound by their narrow conventions and false moral values. Sen now felt the need to retreat into himself and analyze – “what I used to do before was to locate my enemy outside me. Now I’m trying to find my enemy within myself, to point my accusing finger at myself.”
Akaler Sandhane is a story of confrontations at different levels – between urban and rural culture, between a tragic past and a potentially tragic present, between cinematic illusion and the reality it claims to present, between an artist and his exploitative instincts which he disguises in the garb of creativity. The film is about a film crew going to a remote village of Bengal to make a film on famine. Sen’s humor is evident in this film where at one point, the film crew with its incessant consumption causes a shortage of meat and produce in the village, resulting in a mini-famine there.
The other films in this phase also tackle such contradictions. Kharij (The Case is Closed, 1982), is a subtle understated exposure of bourgeois compromise and the deliberate self-imposed blindness to the reality that makes such a compromise possible. The film uses the death of a child servant as a political symbol, to ponder upon themes of morality and social class, examining the disparity that exists between the lower and middle classes of Calcutta. In the film, a middle-class family employs a young boy as their house servant – a seemingly normal thing to do in Indian homes even today. In a twist of fate, the boy then dies from carbon monoxide poisoning. As far as a plot setup is concerned, this is all that happens in the film. The narrative then turns into a study of how the middle-class society addresses this particular event.
The film opens with a conversation between an unseen couple in the back of a taxicab as the man offers to buy the woman anything she desires – a new apartment, a car, wardrobe, a television set – all invaluable necessities of happy urban living. In the next scene, the woman, visible this time, suggests another commodity – a house servant who can help break coal for the stove, run errands, and be an attendant and playmate to their young son. The attitude of entitlement and commodification is thus foretold in the film’s opening sequence highlighting materialistic privilege as an agent of indifference, discrimination, insularity, and exploitation.
In another particularly revealing sequence that examines the idea of morality, the homeowner asks for advice from a lawyer on the legal implications of the matter. The homeowner claims that the boy had always been treated as a member of the family. His disingenuous words are rebutted by the lawyer who points out that the boy used to sleep under the stairs, was given very little money, and was ultimately regarded as inferior – any positive interaction from the family was minimal, thus making them active participants in the event. The lawyer, however, confesses that ultimately “the legal lie will prevail over the moral truth.” Sen thus exposes a culture of collective accountability, where exploitation of the poor and the weak are rationalized not only by economic necessity but also socially enabled by an implied complicity that reinforces the status quo.
For a narrative that deals with the subject matter of class, and particularly the exploitation of servants, it would be very easy to descend into ideological rhetoric or sentimentalized melodrama. Sen, however, avoids both. He sharply contrasts the dead boy with the privileged and protected son of the homeowner and maintains a pervasive sense of uncertainty – an uncertainty of conflict between social classes, that pushes the story forward. Without a single line of preaching, the highly nuanced narrative finds the dead boy’s father and another servant boy in the building – representatives of the ‘lower’ class coming through in the end as more dignified than their ‘upper’ class employers.
Khandhar (The Ruins, 1983) explores another guilt and another betrayal – a young man from the city brings along two of his friends, a writer, and a photographer, for a weekend visit to his dilapidated country estate where his cousin Jamini lives, a prisoner of the forgotten past, with her blind and ailing mother. For Subhash, the professional photographer, the encounter with Jamini becomes fraught with the very idea of exploitation and guilt – he takes pictures of her and the sprawling ruins, distancing himself however from any emotional responsibility of participating in Jamini’s painful reality. He returns to the safety of the city, dissociating himself from the experience and relegating Jamini to the one-dimensional prison of a photograph on the wall of his studio. For Mrinal Sen, Subhash is his alter-ego when he says, “I too am intruding with my picture-making machines into the unbearable lives of others, building up a relationship with the young and the old. And then, after finishing the film, I pack up my machines, gather my men and come back to the city, to my tidy, organized room.” Khandhar is then, another exercise in self-introspection, another attempt to understand the foibles of his own time, his own class in the context of a highly personalized cinematic experience.
The memories and nostalgia of his childhood and early youth spent in east Bengal (now Bangladesh) drew Ghatak towards making his penultimate film Titash Ekti Nadir Naam (A River Called Titash, 1973). Based on a Bengali novel of the same title, the film revolves around the life of a fishing community on the banks of the river Titash. The river that gives life to the community steadily dries up, but the protagonist, dying of thirst on its sandy bed dreams of a new life. This assertion of life in the midst of calamity, exploitation, and deprivation is a recurring motif in Ghatak’s films. In Titash Ekti Nadir Naam, it expresses itself throughout the film in the simple joys and sorrows of a people living in daily communion with the river. The song of Lalon Shah, a mendicant poet of the nineteenth century, sets the rhythm of the film which ebbs and flows with the waters of the Titash, investing in the protagonists, the fishing community, a poetic and sentient realism. Ghatak said of the film, “Titash became a kind of commemoration of the past that I left behind long ago. When I was making the film, it occurred to me that nothing of the past survives today, nothing can survive. History is ruthless. It is all lost. Nothing remains.”
The End
While both Ghatak and Sen were participants in the IPTA movement and were both influenced by it, it is Ghatak’s use of melodrama, songs, and coincidence that are telltale signs of his background in theatre. Sen, on the other hand, distanced himself from the sentimentality of his early films, experimented with new wave techniques and settled eventually for a cinema of self-introspection. While Sen made 27 feature films in a career spanning 47 years, Ghatak made 8 features and a handful of unfinished fragments in his film career that spanned 25 years. Sen faced both adulation and intense criticism, especially in the role of a political film-maker. His refusal to stand by an earlier political perception, his eagerness to adapt to his immediate surroundings, his spontaneous response to new political understanding and his constant self-evaluation have all been critiqued from time to time. Yet for Sen, these are signs of growth that he has consistently documented in his work.
Sen recalls his last meeting with Ghatak on Christmas Eve of 1975. While Sen was busy getting ready for the shooting of his film Mrigaya starting the next day, Ghatak arrived at his door unannounced. Emaciated from years of alcohol abuse, with a ghostly pallor on his face and gasping for breath, Ghatak grabbed Sen’s hand like a phantom from the past. The two friends had dinner, they talked and they cracked jokes. Ghatak promised that he would give up drinking. A little more than a month later on 6th February 1976, Ritwik Kumar Ghatak died. In a career ridden with inconsistencies, where extraordinary craftsmanship often went hand in hand with childlike indifference, where the struggle to find money for films met with constant failure, where alcoholism depleted the resources of a keen mind, it is not unnatural that Ghatak found few admirers in his lifetime. Long ago, in his passionate and futile appeal to an indifferent audience, talking about his off-mainstream cinema that had just begun its struggle for survival, he had said, “try to understand that we are moving in the middle of a flowing river. Whatever we are at this moment, that is not our final entity. We shall grow and give shade. We are only waiting for a little sustenance.” Apt then are the last words he ever spoke on the screen, as the protagonist dying in the crossfire between the police and the revolutionaries in his final film Jukti Takko Aar Gappo, “one must do something.”
Sources
Mukhopadhyay, Deepankar. The Maverick Maestro. New Delhi: Indus, 1995. Print.
Ghatak, Ritwik K. Cinema and I. Ed. Avik Banerjee. Calcutta: Dhyanbindu, 2015. Print.
Banerjee, Shampa. Profiles: five film-makers from India. New Delhi: National Film Development Corporation, 1985. Print
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print.
Mukerjee, Madhusree. Churchill’s Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India During World War II. New York: Basic Books, 2010. Print.
Simha, Rakesh K. “Remembering India’s forgotten holocaust.” Tehelka.com. Tehelka, 13 June 2014. Web. 21 March 2017.
Bingham, Adam, ed. Directory of World Cinema: INDIA. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015. Print.
Rosenbaum, Jonathan. Movies as Politics. California: University of California Press, 1997. Print.
Boswas, Moinik. “Her Mother’s Son – Kinship and History in Ritwik Ghatak.” rouge.com.au. Rouge (2004). Web. 25 August 2017.
O’Donnell, Erin. “Woman and homeland in Ritwik Ghatak’s films.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media No. 47 (2004). Web. 21 March 2017.
Chatterji, Shoma A. “Ek Din Pratidin – Mrinal Sen’s Indictment on Patriarchy.” learningandcreativity.com. Silhouette Magazine, 14 May 2015. Web. 23 March 2017.
Know your EC team – Pravi Gopalan (2024 Treasurer)
When I sat down to spill the beans in this article, I was scratching my head, wondering where the heck to start. Let’s rewind to the good old days – I popped into this world in a tiny village called “Kundamkuzhy” in Kerala’s Kasaragod district. My childhood was like a wild adventure kids nowadays can only dream of. Picture this: endless freedom, playing from sunrise to sunset, tag games on tree branches that felt like treetop Olympics, crashing at relatives’ houses, and pulling off Olympic-level dives and swims in the river. Meanwhile, my parents were clueless about my whereabouts. Now, when I’m sweating bullets about my own kid’s safety, I ponder how my folks managed to be so carefree. Maybe it was because, back in the day, raising kids was a whole village affair. Yes, a village-wide babysitting network!
My carefree saga rolled on until 6th grade when I bagged a ticket into Navodaya, a boarding school that flipped my world upside down. It took a hot minute to adjust to the schedule and to wave goodbye to my cherished freedom. Adapting to the new routine was like trying to dance to a new beat, but after a few weeks, everything clicked into place. The next seven years saw me bouncing between Navodayas in Kasaragod and Raebareli (UP). Those years sculpted the basic me – the good, the bad, and the quirky. I completed my B. Tech from LBS College of Engineering, Kasaragod and M. Tech from IIT Roorkee.
Fast forward to 2010, and I found myself in Roanoke, VA, a picturesque spot nestled in the Blue Ridge mountain valley. Eleven years of soaking in the beauty before I did the shuffle to Columbus, OH, for work. Roanoke was stunning, but we missed the buzz of a big Kerala community and Malayalee festivals. I had contacted COMA before moving to Columbus, and received guidance, and bam, the next week, we were picnicking (in 2021) with Columbus Malayalees, making a bunch of new buddies.
I got married in 2013 but I met my first love in 2021 – The soccer. I love soccer and used to play in college days, but since I moved to the US, I had no opportunity to play until I moved to Columbus. I got drafted into the famous Tuskers Soccer team for a $1M annual salary :D, and suddenly I was jet-setting around the US for tournaments, feeling like a soccer rockstar.
That is when “veruthe soccer kalichu enjoy cheythu nadanna enne” some friends lured into 2024 COMA EC.
I met my wife Shruti in 2013 and we have a son Ryan. I am very happy that my son has the opportunity to have a glimpse of our Kerala culture through our association and the plenty of Malayali friends we met here.
Welcome to the September edition of the COMA newsletter. A week after the COMA grand Onam celebrations, I am still feeling a sense of excitement and exhilaration. It was an absolute success, and a testament to the meticulous planning by the COMA Executive Committee and the enthusiasm of the event volunteers. The celebrations embodied the true spirit of Onam – bringing people together to celebrate traditions and camaraderie.
The athapookkalams were a sight to behold, and transformed the venue into a visual delight. Members adorned in traditional attire like kasavu sarees and mundu enhanced the visual spectacle of the celebrations. The sadhya was a culinary treat with an array of authentic dishes including delectable payasams and boli, all served in fresh banana leaves.
Our chief guest Prof. Gopinath Muthukad truly shone as a beacon of altruism and selflessness. His ability to rally people together for his cause is extraordinary, and his unwavering commitment to the cause of differently abled children in Kerala is an inspiration to all of us.
The chenda melam team from Detroit drummed up a storm and kept us on the edge of our seats. The performance was nothing short of extraordinary and left us all in awe and deeply proud of our rich Malayalee cultural heritage. The event’s entertainment selection was a blend of traditional and contemporary music and dance performances, ensuring everyone had an enjoyable experience. The MC team did a great job ensuring the event ran smoothly, and most importantly keeping the audience fully engaged.
The Onam event was a roaring success encapsulating the spirit and tradition of Onam, and creating an opportunity for charitable giving, raising an incredible amount for a very worthy cause. Thank you COMA EC 2023 for the dedication and passion that made this Onam an unforgettable celebration for all of us.
COMA officials handing over the first check to Prof. Muthukad.
ഓർമ്മിക്കാൻ ഒരു അമേരിക്കൻ ഓണം – Suprabha Arimbassery
(Suprabha hails from Valayanchirangara, Ernakulam. She is currently in Columbus, Ohio visiting her daughter Anjana Nair and family.)
എക്കാലത്തെയും നല്ല ഓർമ്മയായി മനസ്സിൽ സൂക്ഷിക്കാൻ ഒരോണവും കൂടി. നാട്ടിലെ ഓണപ്പരിപാടികൾ നഷ്ടമായെന്നോർത്ത് അമേരിക്കയിലെത്തിയ ഞങ്ങൾക്ക് ഇവിടുത്തെ ഓണാഘോഷങ്ങളിൽ പങ്കെടുക്കുവാൻ ഭാഗ്യമുണ്ടായി. വളരെ സന്തോഷകരമായ കാര്യം തന്നെ. ആഘോഷപരിപാടികൾ കാണുവാനായി ഒരു സ്കൂളിൻടെ ഓഡിറ്റോറിയത്തിൽ എത്തിയപ്പോൾ കേരളത്തിലെ ഒരു ആഘോഷത്തിലെത്തിയ പ്രതീതി. എല്ലായിടത്തും മലയാളത്തനിമയാർന്ന വേഷവിധാനങ്ങളും സംഭാഷണ ശകലങ്ങളും, പരിചയപ്പെടലുകളും പരിചയപ്പെടുത്തലുകളുമായി സ്നേഹബന്ധങ്ങൾ പരിപോഷിപ്പിക്കുന്ന നമ്മുടെ കൂട്ടുകാർ. അല്പസ്വല്പം പരിചയപ്പെടലുകൾക്കു ശേഷം കണ്ട പൂക്കളം വർണവിസ്മയം തീർത്തു. പ്രകൃതിദത്തമായ പൂക്കളാൽ അണിയിച്ചൊരുക്കിയ രണ്ട് വലിയ പൂക്കളങ്ങൾ വളരെ മനോഹരം.
അതു കഴിഞ്ഞ് ഒന്നാന്തരം ഓണസദ്യ. കേരളീയ സമ്പ്രദായത്തിൽ വാഴയിലയിൽ പപ്പടം, പഴം, പായസം ഇവ കൂട്ടി ഓണസദ്യ കഴിച്ച ശേഷം ഓഡിറ്റോറിയത്തിനകത്തേയ്ക്കു കയറിയപ്പോൾ കണ്ടത് – ഉത്സവപ്പറമ്പിലാണോ എന്ന് തോന്നുമാറ് ഒരാന. നെറ്റിപ്പട്ടം കെട്ടി, കോലം വച്ച് – വളരെ നന്നായിരുന്നു ആ കാഴ്ച. തുടർന്ന് ചെണ്ടമേളത്തിന്റെയും പുലികളിയുടെയും അകമ്പടിയോടെ മാവേലിത്തമ്പുരാൻടെ എഴുന്നള്ളത്ത്. മാവേലിത്തമ്പുരാൻടെ വരവും എതിരേല്പ്പും താളാത്മകമായി കൊട്ടിക്കയറിയ ചെണ്ടമേളവും സദസ്സിനെ ഗൃഹാതുരത്വത്തിന്റെ തലത്തിലേക്കുയർത്തി.
വിശിഷ്ടാതിഥിയായെത്തിയ ശ്രീ ഗോപിനാഥ് മുതുകാടിനൻടെ ഉത്ഘാടനപ്രസംഗം ഗതകാല സ്മരണകളെ ഉണർത്തുന്ന ഒന്നായിരുന്നു. തുടർന്ന്, കലാപരിപാടികളുടെ ഒരു വേലിയേറ്റം തന്നെയായിരുന്നു. ഓണപ്പാട്ടും, തിരുവാതിരകളിയും, കൊച്ചുകുരുന്നുകളുടെ ഫാഷൻ ഷോയും, ക്ലാസിക്കൽ, സിനിമാറ്റിക് ഡാൻസ്, മ്യൂസിക് ബാൻഡ് ഫ്യൂഷൻ, കവിതാലാപനം തുടങ്ങിയവ കൊണ്ട് കുറേ സമയം വേറൊരു ലോകത്ത് എല്ലാം മറന്നിരുന്നുപോയി. ഓണോത്സവത്തെ ശ്ലാഖിച്ചുകൊണ്ടുള്ള ഒഹായോ സ്റ്റേറ്റ് സെക്രട്ടറിയുടെ സന്ദേശം കേട്ടപ്പോൾ വളരെ സന്തോഷം തോന്നി.
ഇത്ര ഭംഗിയായി ഇതവതരിപ്പിക്കാൻ ചുക്കാൻ പിടിച്ച COMA ഭാരവാഹികൾക്കും, അർപ്പണബോധത്തോടെ ചിട്ടയായ പരിശീലനവും, പരിശീലിപ്പിക്കലും നടത്തിയ അംഗങ്ങൾക്കും കുട്ടികൾക്കും, എല്ലാത്തിനും എല്ലാ പിന്തുണയുമായി നിൽക്കുന്ന എല്ലാ കുടുംബാംഗങ്ങൾക്കും എത്ര നന്ദി പറഞ്ഞാലും മതിയാകില്ല. കൂട്ടായ പ്രവർത്തനത്തിൻടെ പ്രതിഫലനമാണ് ഇത്രയും നല്ലൊരു ദൃശ്യ ശ്രാവ്യ വിസ്മയ കാഴ്ച. ഇതാസ്വദിക്കാൻ അവസരം ലഭിച്ചതിന് വളരെ അധികം നന്ദി, സന്തോഷം.
My trek to the Annapurna Base Camp – Deepa Jayabalan Menon
(Deepa Menon among her friends and family is best known for someone who is always living on the edge, loves travel, adventure sports, trekking, and diving (underwater and sky). On a sunny nice day she can be found hiking, and is always working on her next bucket list item.)
Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp… it was indeed one of the beautiful decisions of my life.
I leave a part of myself to the Himalayas every time I visit her. Himalayan ranges are my all time high; it gives a unique energy to reach and to be around her in spite of all the difficulties, tough terrains, and multiple days of walking.
It was an amazing experience to walk through the distinct landscape full of rich mountains, terraced fields, peculiar Gurung and Thakali villages, and the diverse variety of flora and fauna. The trail goes with gradual and steep ascents and descents alongside terraced rice paddies, lush rhododendron forests, and high altitude landscapes.
Nearly all of the villages to Annapurna Base Camp are the ethnic communities of Gurung and Thakali. We were able to find a few tea houses spread through the villages. These tea houses are the go to places to discuss and exchange notes with local villagers and tourists from other countries. Interacting with the staff, guides, and porters on the trail gave us a glimpse into their way of life and above all enjoy the traditional Nepalese style local dishes and tea.
As we were gradually moving towards the base camp through the villages, the vegetation shifted from tropical forests to alpine terrain with grasslands on rocky mountains. It was monsoon season so the sky was never clear and it rained daily. I would call it a monsoon and waterfall trek. I had multiple leeches biting me and we were always drenched in rain.
The last stretch to the Annapurna Base Camp was a walk on moraines. The evening we reached Machapuchare (base camp), the sky was not clear and we couldn’t see the mountain range, and we were disappointed. The locals said that this time of the year the sky is never clear and we may not be able to see anything.
And then the miracle happened. At 3:30 AM the next day, we woke up looking at the clear sky, visible galaxies, and the vast Annapurna mountain ranges. No words could do justice to her serenity. She is majestic, magnificent, yet looks calm and beautiful. We were surrounded by the various peaks of Annapurna as well as other mountains like Gandharvachuli and Machapuchhre.
The knee pain, leech bites (blood loss), getting drenched, lack of sleep, high altitude sickness… everything just magically disappeared. The journey might have been strenuous and silent but in the end, I always have a beautiful story to narrate. 🙂
Onam Meals-on-Wheels Marathon
On Sep 3rd, Sunday, COMA coordinated a Meals on Wheels marathon by delivering 5 routes in tandem, including 16 volunteers, both adults and youth. This is the 9th year since COMA started doing Meals on Wheels as a regular community activity, and given that this year’s Onam was primarily a fundraiser for Prof. Gopinath Muthukad’s charitable causes, it was proposed to kick off the Onam celebrations by doing a Meals on Wheels marathon. The invitations were sent out with very little notice but all 5 route slots were filled up within an hour of the announcement. Thank you to the volunteers who stepped up so very quickly.
Check out this short 2-minute video for a slideshow of photos from past route deliveries as well as brief interview clips with some of our youth volunteers from the marathon.
