My Malayalam Blog

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Tuesday 11 September 2012

A Malayalee on the Moon

Malayalees (those who speak Malayalam language) are said to be very enterprising and adventurous. There are several stories about Malayalees being found in every nook and corner of the universe. A story goes like this: Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon. He was taking a stroll on the surface of the Moon when he heard a voice, “Hello, Mr Armstrong, would you like to have a cup of tea?” He looked at the source of the sound and found a Malayalee tea shop. The Malayalee knew that one day man would land on the Moon, and he was ready with a tea shop! This may be slightly exaggerated, but yes, Malayalees are said to be an adventurous lot. It is also said that where there are four Malayalees, there will be five organisations! Every Malayalee wants his or her own organisation (and a stepney, too!).
In the national capital, though I have not counted, there may be a few hundreds of Malayalee organisations belonging to each region, religion, and caste. There are organisations for brahmins, nairs, ezhavas, varriers, marars, christians, muslims and so on and so forth. The most popular, classic, and elite organisation is, of course, the Delhi Malayalee Association, which has branches in every pocket of the city. Malayalee cultural organisations are present not only in Delhi, but also in other parts of the national capital region, such as Faridabad, Noida, Indirapuram, Gurgaon, and so on.  Then there are organisations connected with religious places. Count the temples managed by Malayalees in NCR, I don’t think it is difficult to cross half a century. And with each temple, there is a dedicated group of devotees and hundreds of floating devotees.
Having been forced to uproot from one’s native place which lies nearly 3000 kilometers away, these are the avenues through which Malayalees relive their past. Whatever be their aims and objectives, whatever be their activities, there is one occasion which they never ever forget to celebrate in the most lavish way, and that is Onam.  Wherever there is civilization, there are Malayalees. Wherever there are Malayalees, there are Onam celebrations. The celebrations of pravasi Malayalees continue for several weeks after Onam, since each celebration has to be arranged on a Sunday.
Gayathri, a well-known cultural organisation of Delhi celebrated Onam on Sunday, 9 September which I also attended. The celebrations included excellent cultural programmes, superbly organised, choreographed, and performed. Everybody behind the programme deserves huge applauses. Heartiest congratulations to each one of you who was part of the effort directly or indirectly.

2 comments:

  1. Some comments received through mail:


    Actually you deserve numberless thanks for your soft kind mind about malayalees. Says that Pravasi malayalees are little bit selfish. Suppose In an NCR most of the offices are having malayalees as a mere percent. But they are thinking that we are white collers. I mean no helping mentality to them. But what an Organizations doing.
    Thanks so much yiour articles. I expect more in future.
    Mathew P.J.
    ***********

    “A Malayalee on the Moon” and “Another Note on Onam” were interesting.
    Regards,

    Sohan
    ***********

    Nice. I like it
    omy
    ***********

    It is very nice Apha, i do follow this.

    Suji

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you all very much. I value your comments and request you kindly to continue commenting.

    ReplyDelete

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