Jabaaz Onam 2007 Charlotte III

Part II
Sunday Sept 2, 2007 : Main Event OnaSadhya

The good thing about onam day is that, if you are not a host or not in pachakam committee, the activities for the day are very simple - wake up, take bath, get ready (preferably into Mundu aka Dhoti), eat a lavish feast and take rest. But for the other group, its a very hectic day. I was ready in my Onam dress by around 9 and i roamed around the kitchen when i got an order from Sweety and Vini "We need shredded coconut, fast!!! All our remaining dishes need that." It was a fun ride, going into all american stores in mundu, looking for shredded coconuts. No desi store opens before 12 on Sunday in charlotte. So after a lot of curious looks, i finally found coconut in a chineese shop (our brothers... remember India China bhai bhai). With that in kitchen, the ladies started their work and i got into host mode.

A major success for the sadhya was to keep the non food committee members away from kitchen till food is ready. For that i took the help of Bread Machine Mr.Kuriappa. He was woken up from bed and given 2 full packets of bread and jam. Adimakkanu Kuri did a perfect job from bed itself. Also we prepared tea for everyone. So who ever got up was given bread and tea which kept them away from kitchen. Another mission successful. Some work was offshored (in the house families were staying) by the food committee. To make rice for 17 ppl in batches and prepare 100 pappadams. So we took 4 guys and started that work. Why 4!! to play cards in between ofcourse!. Another set of guys were in charge of cutting Vazha Ila for the sadhya.

Once food was ready and when everyone was in their Onam dresses, it was time for the much awaited Onam Sadhya. Don't you want to hear the items. Upperi, Pappadam, Pazham, Choru, Parippu, Neyy, Manga Achar, Puli Inchi, Olan, Kalan, Pachadi, Kitchadi, Koottukari, Cabbage Thoran, Erisseri, Aviyal, Sambhar, Rasam, Pacha Moru, Parippu Payasam, Ada Pradhaman. Except Upperi everything prepared by our Pachakam committee and their adimakanns. Kudos girls! Believe me, it was awesome.

Highlights during Onam Sadhya (if i write every incident that happened during the feast, this will like ramayanam... divided in so many parts.. malayalathil paranjaal kaandam kaandam aaye ezhuthanam).

• First Man Sitting Award : Vini, host or not, food committee or not, my wife is always the first.
  
• Aakrantham (Can't control) Award : Kshema, Sorry couldn't control, by the time one round of parippu was served and everybody looking at each other, lets start? she is already finished. Can't blame you! blame to pachakam committee.
  
  
• Cleanest Ila Award : Ratheesh as usual. Except for the one small banana skin, there was nothing left in his ila. Anto, Mathew, Priyan, Koshy everyone tried, but couldn't compete with Ratheesh. He was perfect.



• Last Man Sitting Award : The most prestigious of the awards goes to Mathew Thomas. Kuriappa and Priyan were fighting with Mathai till the end. When audience started cheering and pressure became too much, Kuriappa retired. Priyan was almost ready to give up, then Mathew being a good sport, shared his secret. "Eda, even if your stomach is full, it takes 5 minutes for the signal from stomach to reach brain. So before that fill your stomach with more food." Priyan tried, but failed. Mathai was declared the winner and it toom some effort from all of us for him to get up from his seat.

After this huge task, people retired to their resting positions. Punjabi house DVD playing in TV and everyone in front of it sleeping was a good enough declaration of how good the feast was. Ratheesh's friend Vinayan also dropped in around 4pm.

Part IV