King Mahabali was my Santa: Asin

On Onam, actor Asin takes a trip down memory lane with DNA

This one’s special
Ever since I joined the film industry, I haven’t been able to celebrate Onam like I did when I was a kid. But this year my Onam is going to be in Mumbai and I’ve made sure I keep the day free from shoots; dad and mum will both be here with me.

A riot of colours
I have had the most colourful Onams. It’s traditional to have these flower arrangements and flower carpets during the 10 days that leads up to Onam. We had a large bungalow (in Kerala) with a garden and I remember getting up in the mornings, going into the garden with a basket in hand to collect all sorts of flowers to make the flower carpet.

All that finery
It’s the day when women would look lovely in traditional white sarees with red, green or gold borders and jasmine in their hair and sandalwood paste on their forehead and we girls would wear colourful skirts and blouses. I always wore traditional attire in silk gifted to me by my parents. The men donned their crisp white shirts and dhotis; everyone looked beautifully divine.

A bit of role play
We had various competitions among ourselves on that day. Then we would have a guy dressed as King Mahabali, which is for me the South Indian version of Santa Claus, the jolly pot-bellied good hearted visitor of the festival. Usually one of our bigger cousins or some guy with a pot belly would play that role.

Got a sweet tooth
First we exchanged gifts then it was time for the traditional lunch called Onasadhya. It is served on a banana leaf and consists of many courses and ends with the payasam (a Kerala specialty). My favourite was the one called ‘the king of sweets’ that is the adapradhaman payasam, made with milk, a dash of saffron, jaggery or sugar and rice. Today, Onasadhya is prepared by my mother at home and I can’t wait to have it.

As told to DNA