This Onam was a little different. Achan had come making it special. This is the first Onam with Achan here at home. He came after a lot of convincing and a little bit of fighting, but it was worth it.
While I did the cooking, Arun and Achan did the pookalam. Achan was the designer and said, that he would do a 'Sputnik'. I jumped wondering what that meant. He said, when sputnik was first launched, that was the design for Onam then. A craft with four legs. So, both of them got down to making 'Sputnik Pookalam'. It was fun.
The sputnik Achan designed and Arun implemented. He said that something is missing and when they had done it then, it was better.
So, this Onam, we welcomed Mahabali with Sputnik.
I look back to the old days when Onam was with a big family. My mom used to do the pookalam single handedly as well as the Sadhya for all three of us used to have school. She was very good at it. Wish I could go back in time. Maybe next year we should get together, for we have Deeksha and Vivaan, the next generation.
