Happy Vishu

Happy Vishu to All...
This vishu completes a hatrick of vishu's away from home. Here are some memoirs of vishu day,A vishu day when i wake up with eyes 'still' closed and first thing i see would be the 'vishukkani' arranged by mother. Amma's moist hands on my eyes covering me not to see anything but the 'vishukkani' at first. Then the best part comes up blessings form the elders and money (vishukaineettam), heavy source of pocket money during my childhood. Bursting crackers during ealry hours on a vishu day, the crackers go on till sunrise. We malayalees do not celeberate diwali so all our cracker wishes are fulfilled on vishu day. This is also the time to 'show off' or demonstrate your bravado. Bursting malapadakkam in your hand, throwing the olapadakkam at the last moment, flying skuds or rockets to your neighbours window. We do everything possible that minor burns and holed up clothes are a part and participle of every vishu.

Then ammamma's turn comes to this parade of temple visits. Our house is nearby kalpathy (south kasi as they say) where we are never short of temples. So from morning 6 in our new clothes we walk and walk through these temples. Prayer time with ammammma munching some mantra's and instructing us what, how and when to pray. As morning unveils we make trips to our aunts and uncles nearby, call up relatives on phone etc etc. Every year we(small team from our locality) play a cricket match against 'thonipaalayam team', as we grew older the betting amount increased up. Once we lost almost our entire vishukaineettam in one match and one of our team member started crying. But on the whole it was a big bargain as most of the time we won and used the money to buy new bats or football or something else.

Afternoon vishusadhya is majestic, with lots of varieties and typical malayalee style on banana leaves with 2 types of payasam. A treat for an epicure to say the least. Sometimes my mom's colleagues and their family too chip in for sadhya so the occassion becomes grander. Having said all these its not that we did not celebrate vishu here away from home. We do our share as well whether its going to temple, new dress and making semiya payasam ( as per amma's mailing instruction). But still the sanctity and joy is missed. Maybe it took me a long time to understand vishu is not about crackers, new dress, kaineettam or the sadhya for that matter. Its blessings of your elders and celebration amongst your loved ones.
Once again, Evarkkum ente hridhayam niranja Vishu Aashamsakal!!!