Onam is the festival of Kerala(south Indian state). Gods own country celebrates onam to remember great asura king Mahabali who was noble and kind to his people in Kerala. Wherever the mallus unite, there onam is celebrated. The beauty of the festival lies in its secular fabric. People of all religions, castes and communities celebrate the festival with equal joy and verve. Onam also helps to create an atmosphere of peace and brotherhood by way of various team sports organised on the day. We are also a part of celebration. Onam mark the commemoration of Vamana avatara of Vishnu and the subsequent homecoming of the mythical King Mahabali who Malayalees consider as their King. The meaning of the song sang everywhere in Kerala that day make us remember the situation existed during his ruling period.
When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people were equal.
And people were joyful and
merry;
They were all free from
harm.
There was neither anxiety
nor sickness,
Deaths of children were
unheard of,
There were no lies,
There was neither theft nor
deceit,
And no one was false in
speech either.
Measures and weights were
right;
No one cheated or wronged
his neighbor.
When Maveli ruled the land,
All the people formed one
casteless races
Our college is situated in the birthplace of human civilization and languages. Tamilnadu has its proud of generations and now it is the masterland of education. Here, for last three years we are celebrating Onam with its colours and games. Usually final year students organise Onam celebrations in its strength and unity. We were waiting for our turn to organise the prosperous Onam. Finally this year we got the chance. We were happy and was planning about Onam at its maximum level with the expected money. Everything arranged well and rate for every product we brought were enquired many times to get it maximum best and cheap. I got two regions both stage&decoration and announcing management. Money got allotted for decoration in which I planned of making the statue of great king Mahabali. I had total confidence about the announcing management because I believed I am good at it. So I avoided thinking about that program of vocal practice. The Mahabali was another question. My laziness slow down the work of statue and gave me immense headache that night which left me sleepless. I spend whole night working with the statue and finally I quit without getting perfection at my work. That morning the celebration started wonderfully great. We were in traditional costumes with girls wearing white saree and traditional ornaments.
The official inaugural function started with speeches. I somehow fixed the statue unsatisfied in one of the less noticed position. There was two members allotted for announcements including myself in the morning section. Uncontrollable sleep was fading my face and was disturbing my head. In some parts of my inner head I felt like a drop of spirit is mixed up and spreading.
I started welcoming the guest '' Let's welcome our Respected Guest Mr. .. . .. . . . . .&$%$%#& " an absolute silence.
I forget his name. I forget what I told before. I don't know what to continue after. I gathered confidence and tried again. Again the same happened. Even if I made mistake my partner adjusted it simply with his talent. I quit that too. A day of failures was enough for me to spoil my mood. Even then I adjusted for success of celebration and for supporting friends. We danced alongside our Tamil brothers. We made competitions, played games, performed cultural programmes, shared sweet drinks, sang loud, listened to drum music performance etc. The program was a grand success. And I doubt whether this college witnessed such a celebration of happiness before. Everything was going perfect as expected, except my duties.
At that midst of happiness there came a big disaster. Within minutes every face turned sad. As like waves of tsunami something struck hard. Already there was lack of small amount of money even then it was adjustable. But our treasurer missed the balance amount of money in a nearby bakery. Some huge amount.
I was thinking about his mental condition when I heard this shocking news. I adjusted my mind of frustration analysing myself with his condition. I searched for him thinking of rescuing him from my fellow mates in killing him mentally. But their the situation shocked me enough. Everyone there was consoling him saying that incident as a part of fait. His eyes appeared red and his hands were shivering. We together found an alternative source for raising fund. Everyone was trying to make him come back to such a situation like nothing happened. We enjoyed and compelled him to dance with us for getting out of the mood. Finally the celebration ended happily.
I have heard from the juniors that our batch holds the name for unity in the history of mallu batches existed. But this was the first situation in which I realized we had such a unity. Everyone worked hard realizing their importance for such a target. When the disaster struck everyone fought together with confidence and stood brave. I felt such proud being part of such a batch, thinking about the situations. Its worth thankful to god almighty for such a unity and for making me part of such one.
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