With Kerala reeling under massive floods that has caused widespread destruction in the State, Onam celebrations in the city this week is likely to remain subdued.
Many offices which celebrate Onam with cultural programmes and special ‘Sadhya’ are doing away with them this year.
Nirmala Sankaran, co-founder, HeyMath, said for the last 15 years they had celebrated the festival in a grand manner, but they will be giving it a miss this year.
“We are donating what we would have used for the celebrations to the Kerala Chief Ministers Distress Relief Fund. Additionally, we have been collecting relief material and sending it as well,” she said.
Members of several clubs and associations in the city have been working round-the-clock collecting relief material from different places. “Both the World Malayalee Council and the Malayalee Club chapters in the city will not have any Onam celebrations. We are focussed on sending relief material and have been coordinating with members of our clubs in Kerala as to how we can help,” said V.C. Praveen, advisory board member of the World Malayalee Council.
While celebrations are generally marked by week-long food festivals in several restaurants across the city, most of them have decided to go for shorter celebrations.
“Nobody is in the mood to celebrate, so it would be subdued. We may be having a good spread on that day, but without any fanfare,” said an official in the GRT Group of Hotels. At ITC Grand Chola too, the celebrations have been called off, said an official .
T. Natarajan, honorary secretary of the South India Hotels and Restaurants Association, said hotels were planning to mobilise funds to contribute to the disaster relief. Divakar of Kalpaka Restaurant on T.T.K. Road said they plan to give 20% of the sales on Onam day to the Kerala government as their contribution. Ente Keralam has announced that it would be donating a portion of its proceeds to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.
