GenPro's Onam Celebration (Thursday, August 24)

 Shabna and Limna told Marshall about the Onam celebration and they invited me to attend their celebration.  They informed us that we would need to wear traditional Kerala attire.  They took us both shopping in early August to help us find the clothes that we needed.

When Marshall arrived on Monday, August 21, his office was decorated and they were beginning Onam preparations.  He soon found out that the work week was going to be scattered as others had other responsibilities to help with the preparations.

They had a dance committee, a flower committee, a music committee, a games committee and more.

On Wednesday night, most everyone stayed late and prepared the flowers for the Pookalum.  Two of the guys drove to Tamil Nadu the night before to buy the flowers that were needed for the Pookalum. This was an overnight excursion and the arrived back at the office at 9 in the morning.  Marshall invited me to come in to help and I helped with the purple flowers.  

Marshall bought KFC and pizza for the office staff and traditional Indian food for everyone.  We both ate there too.  The chicken tasted the same to me, which was surprising!

They stayed until 2 am to finish the pookalum but we left around 10:00 pm.

I loved seeing the design in the lobby as we were leaving.  They guys were using string and their geometry knowledge to design the pookalum. They are programmers so the math IQ is high with the team.

I've learned that even in the villages, it's typically guys who do this.

Preparations began at 8:30 in the morning.  Tutsi came over to help me with my saree.  We used many safety pins.  She knew exactly what to do, thank goodness!  It's a lot of fabric (6 yds): wrapped around, tucked in, pinned, etc.  

It took Tutsi and Suki to dress Marshall.  Again it's a lot of fabric.  They are dressing him in a dhoti.  We are wearing the traditional Kerala attire.  Marshall's colleagues took us to the top store so we bought very nice material.

Chinnu told me that she could tell how nice it was by touch and sight.

Tutsi wore a saree to come dress me so we took a picture of the two of us together.  She also put a dot on my forehead.

Tutsi offered to put a dot on Marshall's forehead but didn't want to touch him.  It was somewhat comical because she was so hesitant.  We finally figured out what the hesitation was.

Marshall and I are dressed.  My blouse and his shirt are the same color so we are color coordinated, which is something I was hoping for.

We are dressed and ready to go to GenPro for the Onam celebration.  We are waiting on Shaji.  He can't get to us....Of all days, they decided to pave the road in front of our house and blocked the street.

Shaji walks up the driveway and informs us that we must walk to the car.

We are walking down the freshly paved road.  

Shaji insisted on carrying Marshall's backpack.

Another tradition is that the women wear Jasmine flowers in their hair.  Suki and Tutsi asked Shaji to stop and get me some flowers.  We tried 2 different places and they didn't have any jasmine flowers so we gave up... BUT

The girls in the office asked me if I wanted some flowers in my hair and I said yes.  Limna and Shabna put some jasmine flowers in my hair.

The pookalum in the lobby was beautiful.   They included Catalyst and GenPro's name.  We wanted to have our picture taken with the pookalum.

Drummers are part of the Onam celebration.  Everyone gathers outside and dances to the drums.  Marshall was pulled into the guy circle and was the typical dad dance....

Marshall is with Anoop, one of the founders of GenPro.  They were both asked to light the candles to begin the celebration.

Many of the GenPro women staff are standing around the pookalum.

Marshall is lighting one of the wicks.  They had poured oil into the stand and had many wicks around the stand.  

The ground has many items representing the harvest.

They asked me to light one of the wicks too.

Then we followed the drummers as they led us on a parade walk around the building and down the street to the Techno Park clubhouse.

It was hot and many of us used our Catalyst umbrellas to block some of the heat from the sun.

We went into a room at the Clubhouse.  It was supposedly air conditioned.  It seemed cool at first but slowly turned warm.  We think the air conditioning broke.

The girls did the traditional Onam dance.  It was the same as the dance I had seen at the Tiger Gym.   Many girls learn this dance from a young age.

The boys pretended to do a traditional dance and ended up doing a mashup of traditional and popular songs.  It was funny!

After the dancing and some singing, we had the traditional meal.  It is served on a banana leaf.  There are many sauces on there.  They bring some rice and other curries around to each person.

There was so flatware.  We had to eat with our hands.

Marshall wanted to serve Vinitha.  She had taken care of everyone else and was one of the last to eat.

Here we are eating with our right hand.  That is the culture.

Marshall and I are with the King of Onam.