Onam 2011

Been to Kerala for celebrating Onam with my family. The trip was nice. However the climate could have been better! It was raining incessantly for most of the time. Normally rains end by the time Malayali starts to celebrate Onam. The festivities in kerala continue to grow with government patronage. As of now, Onam has become more of a shopping festival than a harvest festival. Probably owing to the rains, most of the paddy/rice cultivation were destroyed leaving farmers high & dry. Hope some ceremonial harvesting occurred somewhere. In any case, farming has lost its charm long long ago in many parts of the state. With ever increasing cost for seeds, fertilizer, man power etc there is not much of returns. Ever appreciating land cost & tendency to break further in to nuclear families have seen the farm lands getting divided & sub-divided and finally getting into dwelling places. There is no other activity other than farming/cultivation in the world where input multiplies. Still farmers are fast becoming extinct variety. Many of the kerala farmers have switched from food grains to rubber and spices long back in pursuit of better financial returns. Kerala now feeds on rice from Andhra Pradesh. If the trend continues to other southern states, soon paddy fields will become memory & preparation of rice a luxury.