Perception

Never Shut Your Eyes

During the dark devilish hour of midnight,
Lurks a mystical creature underneath the murky brine.

He fires, skywards to the world of azure above him,
Ruthless, no care, without a sign.

But hey! Here he rises, no rush, no need to rush,
For he is the king of the waters, galleons bow before him,
He is an angel,  he is a guardian in blubbery armour.
What is this we see now?

What has happened to this heavenly creature?
Alas my friends, by the work of demons,
He is dead when washed upon the harbour.

So now we grieve for this giant,
Who was once covered with samphire and halyard,
Currently used as oil and meat,

Harpooners hear me, stop your slaughter!

On October 23,2010 NEMA held a Halloween party. I was a twisted Jester. At the party there were many games, prizes and costumes. There was also haunted house. One of my favorite things was the skit the adults did.

While you are reading this you may remember about the fire alarm which rang like a screaming chimpanzee. For those who don’t know what happened, here’s the stoy of weird chimpanzee like fire alarm. Well, I was walking through the haunted house when the funny fire alrm rang. At first I thought it was the sound effects of the haunted house but when I came out I realized that it was the fire alarm. Everybody evacuated the building. Fog machine in the haunted house was the reason why fire alarm rang. The fire fighters said “no more fire alarm” and that was the end of the weird fire alarm.

So now let’s rewind to the fun and games. I won one of them, freeze dance. I got a coca cola glass as the prize for that. Then there was costume contest. It was separated by age. Another one of my favorite thing was musical chairs!  I lost, but i still like it. There was a lot of food including cup cakes, cakes, chips and salsa.

Now let’s fast forward to the haunted house. It wasn’t as scary as I thought it was.  It was rather funny. But that’s me, others were screaming like the whole world got crashed by a giant meteor. Actually, I will admit that it was a bit scary. I like the way they put everything together.

I don’t know why grown up men did a weird play, but it was hilarious. The Halloween party was something everyone would like.

A fusion dance which explores the effect of ‘fusion’ in our life which is in constant transit between our ethnic and American cultures.Nashua Ladies are trying to present this tension between our inner and outer worlds through a traditonal choreography – with a ‘phunky’ twist.The “Elephunk Theme” is a  Tamil masterpiece of Ilayaraja remixed by Black Eyes Peas.

Choreography: Udaya Rani Umesh/Deepa Arun

Participants: Meena Unni, Deepa Arun, Sreeshma Shaji, Hareena Sanil, Mary Joseph, Jiby Santosh, Sindu Santosh, Anjali Rajesh, Udaya Rani Umesh and Devika Nair.

Choreography: Meena Uni/Udaya Rani Umesh

Performers: Hridhya Jacob2,  Sandra Jacob, Ankita Shaji, Malavika Nair, Richa Rajesh, Josaphine Mathew, Smriti Suresh, Meghna Geo, Shreya Kappala, Anya Garg,  Antara Garg, Shreya Mulukantla, Sehar Puri, Jyoti Rohit,  Devika Nair, Namitha Nair, Anna Mathew, Sanjana Santosh, Namratha Nair, Aleena Karatra, Kavya Sebastian, Navya Sebastian, Ganga Nair, Janaki Nair, Meghna Kanthan, Sumedha Rajesh

Meghna Nair, a 5th grade student at Mary D.Altavesta Elementary School, Woburn MA, presents her view of NEMA’s 2010 Halloween Party. Meghna regularly takes part in dances, skits etc in NEMA functions. Meghna also won the NEMA’s Essay competition held in 2009.  Below, Meghna gives an interesting perspective on the event…

This Report is written by Mahesh Vasudevan, a 11th grade student at Wheeler School, Lincoln.  In the past Mahesh has contributed short stories to this blog  and wrote a short play based on Mahabali’s life for 2008 Onam.  Mahesh is the driving spirit behind NEMA’s youth group. Below is the report Mahesh wrote about NEMA’s Halloween party which has held in Chelmsford, MA

NEMA began doing its Halloween event since 2007 and has always had rousing success.  So going into 2010, it seemed a hard task to outdo the past events. One important change was that in venue. The previous two events were held in Grafton, but this year it was to be held in Chelmsford.  Of course, there was a lot of planning and work that was to be done which especially kick started following Onam in late August. Even the simplest, most overlooked things were taken into great account. From the food, to the decorations, to the games, to the activities, the people behind the operations tried to perfect every last detail.

As expected, this year’s Halloween event was fun, vibrant and an absolute blast! I and three of my friends, Justin, Kyle and Nikita, made the haunted house. Justin and Nikita have helped me for the past three years make the haunted house. Going into this year, we were particularly worried of how we would outdo last year’s haunted house, coming up with new, creative ideas and to keep the visitors scared but letting them have a fun time. The new venue came as a double-edged sword as we thought a change of pace would be great but it would be starting from scratch. Nevertheless, our enthusiasm and love of making the haunted house negated these factors. As all four of us arrived late, it seemed we’d have to pull of a miracle to put up the haunted house on time. For almost three straight hours, we duct-taped, stapled, piled, planned and worked tirelessly until our product was complete. With the help of my father, Gopal and Sivan uncles we had our cast assembled. Besides the fog machine/fire alarm mishap in which everyone had to go out of the building for a while, it seemed like a great success.

Upstairs, the other activities seemed to be doing a great job of supplying the guests with entertainment too. Musical chairs, run by Pinky Vasudevan, were wildly popular, having everyone’s competitive juices flowing and made everyone feel like a five-year-old again. However Rishi, Aishu and Giri uncle were able to outlast the kids, women and men in their respective categories to win. Musical statues were another fun game solely for the children and won by Ricky, Advika and Advaitha. Advika also spread her game domination to passing the parcel and took top prize there too. One of the newest activities, the Jack-O-Lantern contest, garnered a lot of attention too as there were many unique designs. Saji Uncle and Jaya Aunty took second prize with Haunted House and Anjali took first with her unique Kathakali. The most hyped and waited-for event, the one that everyone wanted to participate in and tried so hard to do well was the Costume contest. There were zombies, ghouls, witches and fools. Rani Aunty won in the adults category, Aishu won in teens with her cowgirl getup and Archana won in children. Overall, Halloween was a fun-filled and entertaining event for everyone.

The 2010 Halloween event definitely outdid the past Halloween events in a good way. NEMA Halloween is of course a fun event that lets the Malayalee community of New England experience the fun of that day. What other Halloween event can you find Domino’s pizza alongside lemon rice? It’s especially great because it has something for everyone. If you want to have fun like a kid, there are so many fun activities like musical chairs. If you want to show off your creative flair, the Costume contest is the way to go. Go into the haunted house if you want to be scared out of your wits. To show off your artistic side, the Jack-O-Lantern contest is always open. Best of all, all of the great things at the Halloween event are always at a modest price. So next year you know there’s one more reason to look forward to Halloween!

1 : Why do we have the name “100″?

1st 0:  I don’t know!

2nd 0: Me neither!

1: Nobody knows?

1st 0: Maybe the badges know…

2nd 0: Badges may know or may not know.

1: Who knows?

1st 0: It maybe that nobody knows, so let us have the name 100 badges!

More pictures here.

[Photos courtesy Manish Kurup]

New England Malayalee Association chose the auspicious occasion of  Vijayadashami on October 17th, 2010 to start it’s Malayalam classes for children.

The ceremony of Vidyarambham (Vidya means “knowledge” , arambham means “beginning’) for the children is held on Vijayadashami (the last day ofNavaratri) day. On that day thousands of people arrive at the temple to initiate learning to their children.

Initiation into the world of syllabary usually begins with the writing of the mantra “Om hari sri ganapataye namah”(ഓം ഹരി ശ്രീ ഗണപതയേ നമഃ)Hari(ഹരി) refers to the Lord, sri(ശ്രീ), to prosperity. Initially, the mantra is written on sand or in a tray of rice grains. Then, the master would write the mantra on the child’s tongue with gold. Writing on sand denotes practice. Writing on grains denotes the acquisition of knowledge, which leads to prosperity. Writing on the tongue with gold invokes the grace of the Goddess of Learning, by which one attains the wealth of true knowledge.[Vidyarambham]

The first class was a huge success with over 20 children attending. This is an initiative  headed by Manoj Nair  and Asha Manish.  Malayalam classes would be held every other week at the Burlington public library. The schedule is here. The children were thrilled and they are all looking forward to the next class.

Some images of the first class below: