With the celebration of Onam this week, LIBA and this blogger have been a tad busy and excited.First of all, a Very Happy Belated Onam to all….
Onam – The Carnival of Kerala, sets the plethora for the majestic homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali or Maveli. It recalls the era of golden fraternity during the reign of King Mahabali. According to the legend, Mahabali was a kind and benevolent king,who despite his virtues,had one shortcoming. He was very egoistic. This weakness in Mahabali's character was utilized by Gods to bring an end to his reign as they felt threatened by Mahabali's growing popularity. However, for all the good deeds done by Mahabali, Vishnu granted him a boon that he could annually visit his people with whom he was so attached. It is this visit of Mahabali that is celebrated as Onam every year. People make all efforts to celebrate the festival in a grand way and impress upon their dear King that they are happy and wish him well.
We,at LIBA ,too celebrated Onam this year in a grand style.Due to the End Term exams occurring during Onam, this year the celebrations were postponed.
According to LIBA tradition, the Malayali Manga (Ms. World) crown is unveiled in presence of everyone two days before the actual celebration. On 21st September,2009, the Crown was unveiled in front of the library at 9.30 AM. During the ceremony, last year’s winner Ms. Nina Roby was crowned again and nominations were called for this year’s Malayali Manga contest to be held on 23rd September. The excitement was palpable in the air in anticipation of the festive joys and everyone was waiting in anticipation for the Onam celebrations and for Malayali Manga-2009.
On 23rd September, an intricately decorated ‘Pookkalam’ (flower rangoli) was made in front of the Library to welcome King Mahabali. The day started as usual with the morning classes .However as the day progressed, everyone got into a festive mood. All the girls wore Kerala Saree and the boys wore ‘Mundu’ (The Kerala version of Sarong/Lungi) for the occasion.
As soon as the classes were over, everyone assembled in the Auditorium for the function. The function started with our Director Fr. Christie lighting the lamp, which was followed by the narration of the history of Onam and traditional malayali songs and dances performed by the students. Then, with much pomp, our Chief Guest of the day arrived – our own King Maveli, enacted by Mr. Ankesh Tyagi of second year.
As soon as Mahabali had settled down, the beauty pageant for the girls, more popularly known as ‘Malayali Manga’ (Malayali version of Ms. World) started. It consisted of three rounds and of course, a catwalk on the ramp. The show was hosted by Ms. Sandhya Kurian, the gorgeous Ms. Fresher of Batch 2008-2010.And the panel of judges was comprised of our Dean Dr. K. Gowrishankar, Prof. G. Revathi and Prof. T.M. Gopal.. There were 11 contestants in total and in the first round they were asked to introduce themselves.While they were introducing themselves, there were loud roars from the audience cheering their respective favorites. After the introductions were over, they were asked to walk the ramp once. Then the second round consisted of the question-answer round where different questions related to malayali culture were asked to different participants, for example someone was asked to enlist five traits by which one can recognize a malayali from the crowd. During the third round, everyone was given a piece of paper and a pen, and they were asked to jot down in 3-4 lines their definition of ‘Beauty’. While our judges were deliberated on the results, we had a tongue twister competition which was won by Davis Joseph of first year. Finally, after a long wait, the results were declared by none other than our very own Mahabali. Aloma Scarlett of first year(2009-2011 batch)was crowned Miss Malayali Manga-2009 by last year’s winner Neena Robby ,with Lisette Desouza and Goldie Desouza being the First and Second Runner-up respectively. Last but not the least, Ms. Sanghita Nandi of First year was awarded for the pookkalam design, bringing the function to an end.
The teachers then proceeded for the Feast, while the students were head for the car park to assemble for the Tug of War between the senior and junior boys. Here, at first, the sections of each batch competed against each other with Section B of 2009-2011 batch and Section A of 2008-2010 batch emerging as winners.similarly the two sections of Batch 2008-2010 competed where Section A stole the show. Finally, the two batches competed against each other in a face-off with the girls and boys of the respective batches cheering their team. After some fierce pulling and lots of excitement, the Tug of War was won by Batch 2009-2011. Ater the tug-of war everyone proceeded for the feast-the traditional “ONAM SADHYA” arranged at our Loho canteen which ,needless to say, was a real delight. With this the day came to an end and we were all back to our respective classes. Yes…there was another class scheduled after the function at 3.30PM!!!!!!!
The next celebration is Libarated 2009… Till then See Ya…
Sanghita Nandi
PGDM 2009-2011
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