Onam is not just a festival that comes only once in a year, but it brings with it a lot of good old memories too. A celebration that lasts for more than ten days, in which, every morning a flower carpet is made in fornt of each household. For me, the best of the onam memories are related to the making of these flower carpets. We, the kids in the locality used to go everywhere around in the evenings, as teams for collecting flowers. Each team will choose a different direction and the others must not come that way. We'll go to all the grounds, fields and households to pluck all the flowers and the buds ready to bloom(keeping the young ones for next day). Sometimes when someone denies us flowers, we'll turn into mischievous kids, hiding somewhere there for a while, then jumping the walls, getting into their gardens, plucking all the flowers and running back. On these walks in search of flowers, we used to find a mango tree or a guava tree or any other local fruits in between where we'll stop then for a while having as much as these fruits, also keeping some for the rest of the journey. These journeys were filled with so much happiness and fun as we used to laugh a lot, play a lot, or even sing together a lot.
Then in the next morning, there will be a sense of competition in everyone's mind, to make their carpets the best. It starts early in the morning and we all will gather in our courtyards after taking baths. Different designs are tried each day. We'll run to each other's household in between to help in drawing the designs or to exchange flowers or even to check how much progress the other has. Flowers were never bought as we used local flowers only, we had enough flowers around us in our grounds and fields, in different varieties too. All those floral carpets were beautiful, we used to keep them until the next morning, till it was time for making a new one. The memories about those flower carpets are not only the good memories related to onam, but still they are one among the beautiful memories I cherish about my childhood.
Then in the next morning, there will be a sense of competition in everyone's mind, to make their carpets the best. It starts early in the morning and we all will gather in our courtyards after taking baths. Different designs are tried each day. We'll run to each other's household in between to help in drawing the designs or to exchange flowers or even to check how much progress the other has. Flowers were never bought as we used local flowers only, we had enough flowers around us in our grounds and fields, in different varieties too. All those floral carpets were beautiful, we used to keep them until the next morning, till it was time for making a new one. The memories about those flower carpets are not only the good memories related to onam, but still they are one among the beautiful memories I cherish about my childhood.
