Why does one see a good number of ladies outside their amethyst homes on the midnight of 18th Sep,2011?
Jagruti effortlessly accomodated various inputs as she drew the pookkalam design for the forth block,Divya held
the chalk to the string and drew the first major circle,Bindu was all bother as she tried to make sure that no mistakes were made.Two groups of ladies were at the conference hall burning midnight oil to separate out the petals for their respective teams.It was clear that tomorrow's pookkalam competition is far from a casual affair.
The next day(September 18th,2011), around 11 AM, My father told me : "I can see some men standing outside without their shirts on.Looks like the percussionists have arrived."As I walked towards the amphtitheatre , I heard the first beat.Chendakkar had started to perform.
The D-moment had arrived.Shared apprehension as the crowd numbers/ enthusiasm did not seem to have yet coupled
with the drum efforts.Just then Devarajan arrived with the Maveli.
Maveli looked grand.Hopes must have rose as the apprehension had disappeared.Now the drums became
meaningful as the Maveli sat grandly on the stage.Now there was a reasonable crowd too.Maveli led the crowd procession
to the pookkalam on the first block.First block reverberated the grandeur of the drum beats.Hours of tenor
and spirited determination from the ladies of first-second blocks had translated into a beautiful pookkalam.
Maveli-led procession then walked around the driveway.As I trickled through the crowd to take photos of Maveli,
it was very clear that the procession had indeed gained significantly in number from where the possibly baseless
earlier apprehension had seen.Prasanna embodied Maveli so fully that there were atleast a few surreal moments
where I felt like the real Maveli was indeed visiting Amethyst to see how his praja here is doing.Drum beats and chisels continued to shine as the procession reached the pookkalam on the forth block.
Now it was the turn of the forth block to become grand.Creativity in design and color from the
concerted group of ladies in the third-forth blocks had materialized in the pookkalam as shades of lilac and red
danced on your retina.The thick crowd, the outstanding percussion, the colorful pookkalam, the Maveli grandeur, the
traditionally dressed ladies,gents, the traditional look of the percussion group, everything - everything felt great.
Maveli now pulled the crowd like a pied piper into the open ground and rested himself in the shade of a tree
as the drummers entertained him with their enchanting performance.Once the procession had gathered completely
on to the ground, Girijesh gave a small address on the background of Onam.Following this, it was beautiful to
watch small faces brighten up as the generous Maveli distributed sweets to the children.
By this time,The percussionists had lost their stage.Again an apprehension hit.Can the momentum set by the
chenda group be regained in time before the crowd starts to dissolve?It was time now for a fifteen meter long rope
to answer that question.It gave the right answer over and over as men,women and children battled in best of threes
in the tug-of-war game.Everybody had fun.Good thorough fun.Maveli presented the winners for mens' round and ladies'
round with a whole plantain stem of bananas each where as the kids were presented with chocolates.Now came the time to announce the results of the neck-to-neck race for the pookkalam.Venu as judge presented his opinions and let Maveli announce the winners.The surprise of adjudging both teams as winners was an acceptable one to all - there would surely have been a lot of disappointment otherwise.An embruing controversy fizzled off..
Now, it was nearing the time for the feast.I went back to the hall to see that things were mostly in order except
for a shortage of chairs easily solved using chairs in the reading room and billiards room.The spacious conference hall
hosted around eighty people a time as they relished a traditional kerala-style feast.As the hall continued to go on to
host a total two hundred people,I went back home to play host to my visiting friend.
After dropping my friend, as I walked towards the clubhouse, looking for some remaining din from the event,I felt
that Amethyst had suddenly reduced itself to a super-luxury apartment complex with excellent amenities and lot
of space.
"Later towards the day, after long heart-to-heart conversations with Shiju and Devaraj, I realized that Amethyst
was no longer just a super-luxury apartment complex with excellent amenities and lot of space."
