Tiger Gym Onam Celebration (Wednesday, August 23)

Tiger Gym celebrated Onam with all of their local branches (5).  They invited me to join them at the Uday Samudra Kovalam.  I agreed to come but did not agree to wear a saree because I was saving that for Marshall's celebration on Thursday, August 24.


Athira is the receptionist at the Trivandrum branch that I've been attending for the past month.  She greets me every morning and lets my trainer know when I am there.

She greeted me at the hotel when I arrived and stayed with me all day.


Onam is about the return of the king Mahabali.

In Mahabali's kingdom, everyone was treated equally and all his subjects lived peacefully and prosperously.  

I did not know the guy who was the king but the gym members were cheering for him.  He flexed his muscles on the stage and everyone cheered.

The owner of the gym and his wife spoke and welcomed everyone.  There were others who spoke mostly in Malayalam and I didn't understand what they were saying.  I just clapped when others did and laughed when others did.

Another tradition is a traditional Kerala dance.  These girls are in the Zumba class and they practiced to prepare for this dance.  They form a circle and dance to traditional music.

They all looked so pretty in their sarees.  Many of them had jasmine flowers in their hair, which is also part of the tradition.



Games are played as part of an Onam celebration.  They played musical chairs and a woman won.  Then we all went outside and they divided the teams with trainers on all 4 of the teams.  This team is filled with many of the trainers at the branch that I attend.  They did not win but they were trying very hard!


After the games, we all eat a traditional Onam meal called Sadhya.  The meal is served on a banana leaf.  It can include up to 26 dishes.  Some of them are sambar, curry, kalan, avial, thoran, potentially 3 flavors of payasam (sweet and probably more like dessert).  

They have all types of pickles, chutneys, curries and sauces arranged on the top of the leaf.  They bring rice and serve that and top that with something that I wasn't willing to try.  I did eat the rice and tried some of the sauces.  Athira helped me by guiding me on which ones might be spicy.  I liked more than I thought I might.  There was no silverware so I had to eat with my hand.


After the meal, I took a picture with the trainers and Athira.  My trainer is between me and Athira and his name is Abhijith.  He trained me on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 10:00 - 11:00 am.  I would ride with Shaji and Marshall to the Technopark.  We would drop Marshall around 9:15 or 9:30 and then go to the gym. 

Abhijith pushed me hard on weight training.  He also did some cardio but his focus was more on strength and he encouraged me to keep up when I returned to the States. 

That day, I found out that my trainer also trains the wife of the owner of the gym.  She knew about me and her husband had heard about me too.  

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