𝑨𝒎𝒎𝒖'𝒔 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔!

Onam Ponnonam Memories from my childhood. Onam is a special time in Kerala where everyone no matter what caste, religion or nationality they are, come together as one to celebrate the arrival of King Mahabali for his annual visit to see his subjects. My personal memories of Onam were during the Onam holidays at my grandmother’s house. Flower carpets were my favorite. Flower carpets gave women in the house a chance to use their artistic skills to create beautiful floral patterns over a ten day period. I was assigned the early morning "flower collection" job with Narayani or Kali (my grandmother’s helpers), to the large parambu (yard) that my grandmother had, and collected many different types of wild flowers every day. The collection of wild flowers that would bloom during that time was awe inspiring!   Hibiscus was a constant reliable source, along with a small purple flower called Ona Poovu that would bloom during Onam in a purple carpet all around the yard. Thum

In the late 1920's K. Madhavan Nair, K P Kesava Menon, Kurur Unni Namboodiripad, U Gopala Menon, and other  leaders fought hard to remove  the caste system and untouchability in Kerala. They formed the Kerala anti-untouchability committee to  eradicate this bane of the Hindu comm unity.  K Madhavan Nair was the president of the Kerala Province Congress committee at that time and a dynamic leader who took upper hand in all matters related to its work. He worked tirelessly with others to let lower-caste students into Zamorin’s college, Kozhikode; organized scores of events to encourage inter-dining upper and lower castes; and fought for accessibility for lower castes to public places including temples .  Tali Temple The roads in front of Tali temple in Kozhikode were closed for lower castes until Madhavan Nair along with other leaders decided to walk in front of the temple with a close friend, Mr. C. Krishnan, a successful thiyya lawyer at the Madras high court and other members of l