DESERT THOUGHTS

Onam is the biggest and most important festival of Kerala. It is also a harvest festival and is celebrated with joy and enthusiasm by people of all communities. According to a legendary popularity, the festival is celebrated to welcome King Mahabali whose spirit is said to visit Kerala at the time of Onam. Onam is celebrated in the first month of chingam which is from August to September that is in the gregorian calender. Carnival of the festival is celebrated from 4 to 10 days. The first is Atham and the 10th is Thiruvonam. Elaborate feasts, folk songs, energetic dances, elephants, flowers and boats, all are part of onam. Government has taken due notice of the vibrant and colourful festival. Onam is internationally promoted in a big way and celebrates tourist week. Thousands of domestic tourists and foriegn tourists come to India to take part for onam. There is also a tradition to play games which we call onamkalli. On the ocassion of onam ladies draw a flower shaped design ca

Shashi Tharoor was born in London, He did his schooling in Kerala and Bombay. He did his high school in Calcutta. And also he did his bachelors of arts in Delhi.  He has also worked in countries like Singapore,Geneva and New York. He was actually a theatre buff and an actor in his school days. Tharoor has 2 twin sons. He married a Canadian girl named Christy Gile. Later he got divorced to her and he married Sunanda Pushkar who is actually a Kashmiri. He had been giving her lot of money. They got married in his ancestral home.

Wishing you all a happy and a prosperous onam 2010. God bless every1.

I went to Kenya for a holiday last year. I went to Dubai from Cochin. From there i flew to Nairobi with my family. When we reached Nairobi they had given us a menu in that they had written our schedule. We also stayed in Nairobi for one night. From there we flew to Kenya in a small aircraft and we landed there in an air strip. Actually Kenya is an empty grassland. We stayed in a resort called Mara Simbha. We saw animals like lions,deers,jackals,cheetah,elephants and birds like secretary bird and all. In Africa the meaning of hello is Jambo. There is also a crocodile and hipopotamus living near the resort. In Kenya u also get Indian food. There are many Indians also out there. We wanted to see the lepeord also but we couldnt see. We were asked to get up at 5 30 am in the morning. And again we went for hunting.  We saw parashoots and all. And then we went to the massai mara village. We also saw the massai mara tribes men. All of them were very educated. They did many types of dances also

Yesterday evening i went to Sanichen uncle's place. Sherly aunty served me a cup of coffee. I showed mimicri. They were also very impressed and Sanichen uncle took me to lenotre for a treat. He spoke abt Mammen Mappillai and i told him that my great grand uncle was very close to Mammen Mappillai. Because when Mammen Mappillai went to jail. my great grand uncle went and saw Gandhi ji.

Kerala is a state in South India. It has 14 districts. Each district has got a governor. But the only problem is that the roads are very bad in Kerala. Government should repair it. Kerala is also slowly developing. Kerala was formed in the year 1957. Before Kerala was formed we had only travancore and cochin. At that time we had rulers like Kerala verma, Pazhassi Raja, Marthanda verma. We also had kingdom of Cochin. Still today in Kerala there are old Palaces like Dutch Palace in Fort Cochin. We have the synagogue. St Thomas earlier landed in Kodungalloor and he turned some of the hindus into christians.

My great grand uncle A A Paul was very close to Mammen Mappillai because when Mammen Mappillai went to jail he went to see Gandhiji at that time. A A Paul was my great grand father's younger brother.