Oh yes, very much God’s own festival… and yes, He had a major role to play in it.. Legend has it that the demon king Mahabali, who ruled over Kerala, was so good, that Indra, the king of Gods, felt a tinge of professional jealousy, a God size tinge… so he politely took an appointment with Vishnu, who had, by that time, made it a habit of rescuing Indra from all the shit he was constantly falling into.. Indra convinced Vishnu that the yajna that mahabali was conducting now was only a smokescreen, and it was part of the long term strategy to overthrow Indra…
And so Vishnu, who knew all about the matrix, morphed himself into a brahmin lad, went to Mahabali, and asked him for three measures of land, and the measure would be His foot.. Now Mahabali, was famed for his generosity, which was king sized, and immediately agreed, inspite of advice from his spiritual guru… What he needed was a lawyer, for, like most other cases, it was the fine print that caused his downfall.. for Vishnu, just bloated himself and in his first measure took up heaven, and in the second , earth and the other planets.. i guess, by now, mahabali would have totally lost his composure, and, in response to vishnu’s query on where he should keep his third footstep, would have said ‘mere sar pe’.. vishnu, wily God that he was, did just that, and pushed Mahabali into the netherworld…
Vishnu might have felt some pity, for he gave Mahabali permission to visit Kerala, once a year to see his subjects.. and the day he comes back, we Keralites celebrate Onam and sing our own versions of ‘Those were the days, my friend….’
Of course, times have changed now, the Congress is ruling,and they are worse than in the times of Indra, Onam is celebrated more in UAE, America, Europe, Bangalore and other assorted places where Keralites reside in more than 3 numbers, but in spite of all that, its still Onam, and i still get a smile on my lips, even if its in memory of the good old times – yours, Mahabali, and mine too….
until next time, happy Onam to all of you…
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