Oman’s Indian Social Club madeOnam celebrations organised by its Malayalam Wing a standout success last year.
It was held on September 21, 22 and 23, the Onam celebrations were a result of the hard work and dedication of more than 200 volunteers, who contributed more than 10,000 hours of their time to ensure the festival went off without a hitch.
“I can safely say that organising this has been a mammoth exercise,” said T. Bhaskaran, convener for ISC’s Malayalam Wing.
“Preparation for this began about five months ago. All the groups of the Malayalam Wing—the cultural wing, women’s wing, children’s wing, entertainment wing etc. — were involved in this, and our Onam event happened because of the synchronisation of all of these groups together.” In total, 3,430 people dined during the Onam feast on Saturday. Feeding them required about 1,000 kilos of vegetables of different kinds, as well as 440 kg of rice, 300 litres of laban, 220 litres of milk, 25 kilos of ghee, 100 kilos of oil and 180 kilos of sugar. In addition, 4,000 bananas were brought in from Salalah, and another 4,000 banana leaves came from Suwaiq.
“All of our materials were sourced from Oman,” added Bhaskaran.
“We bought the vegetables at a wholesale rate from the vegetable market. The rice was given free of cost by Enhance Oman, and we had about 5,000 bottles of water provided for free by Mai Dubai. We purchased all of the vegetables and fruits ourselves. Once a year, we go to sponsors for our annual expenses, so whatever we collect from sponsorships is spent on various events throughout the year.”
“Onam is our main event, and we also have cultural events, children’s events, women’s events, and many activities for social welfare,” he said. “This money is spent throughout the year, based on the sponsorship amount received. The cost of the Onam event was about OMR3,000.”
Bhaskaran also shed some light on how much effort the volunteers had put into the three-day celebration.
“For the Onam Sadhya, after the end of the second day, all of the volunteers gathered in the Al Falaj Hotel hall, and began cutting vegetables and preparing pickles,” he revealed.
“Throughout the night, all of our volunteers and their families were preparing for the feast. A minimum of 200 volunteers helped us, from 10pm at night to 4am the next morning.”
“Some were cutting various vegetables, others were washing banana leaves, and many others were collecting milk from coconuts to make the dishes for the feast,” explained Bhaskaran.
“The food was made by all the volunteers, and during our cultural programmes, we had a good number of volunteers as well. The preparations for the event took about 10,000 man hours.”
He did not shy away from heaping praise on those, who had sacrificed their time and energy for the Onam event.
“It is only through their hard work that we have been able to achieve this success, and I want to thank each and every volunteer,” said Bhaskaran. “I want to thank all of the sponsors and business partners who supported us. Our volunteers come forward themselves, and this event would not have been possible without their collective efforts.”
“Onam sends a message of love and togetherness and brotherhood, irrespective of caste and creed, so we must continue to spread such joy and happiness in our day to day life.”
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