Technology That Empowers Me

There was a time when wheels were a technology. Fire was a miracle. And universe was a mystery. These are examples from time immemorial. As time passed, we watched more and more technological advancements with wonder , rejecting most of them at the first impact, but soon learnt to adapt it in daily life. And we even didn't know, how they merge to become a  part of our lives.

It would be surprising to say in today's time that once we feared technology more than God. It was something like defying the  path laid down by God. History even reveals the murders committed by churches, temples and other religious groups against those defied religion and believed and laid theirlife for science.  Many of our scientists were considered as devils or worshippers of devil. Most of the inventions took a long time to get implemented in daily life. That is somewhat different from today, where the technology invented a day before and is  shipped to our homes within a week.

Could we think of a technology free day today? Away from alarms, cooking gas, electricity, mobiles, paper and to  all sorts of man made things you can imagine of. Well, if you are stern enough, you may do it on a camping day. But not a routine busy office day. Because without technology, we can't even move a second in the clock, oops again the technology.

Let me rephrase my thoughts? Are we addictive to technology, dependent of technology, or are we enslaved? Interesting to think huh? Most of the techie guys have either a home computer or laptop. But still we find some pleasure in making a twitter update from the GPRS enabled mobile. How many of us can sleep without a fan or air conditioner running in the bed room? Can we live a day without lights? What if we wake up one day and hear that all reserves of crude oil has just disappeared from the earth's surface? Shocking , really? This was the same feeling I had, when I was trying  to grasp the reality. The reality is we have no alternatives for all the technologies that we have today and we are just living the days over and over with the hope that it will last forever, undisturbed. As Tim Robbins quotes in the movie ' The Shawshank redemption' -

"Hope is a good thing, may be the best of the things, and good things never ever dies"

Books I want to write

I have been a busy blogger, always finding something to blah about. But, i always dreamt to be a serious writer for once in a life time. That is when, I wish to write my own biography.

I am not a famous personal. I am just a living being in this planet earth with some space in brain to think,understand and spit our thoughts. That is what I have  and doing in my 'Pieces of my thoughts'. My ambition as a writer is to scribble down the memories from the beginning of my life to almost the end. A saga of life. I don't know how it is with others, but for me, I have a very vivid memory of my childhood right from very early age. When I try to remember the old fading pictures from my memory, all comes in their order with more and more clarity. I always enjoyed reading. What could be of more pleasure than jotting down my own life and reading it at a later point. I feel it really thrilling. What the fellows of 'Bloggerville' think about it? Let me know !!!!.

410 years of Globe Theatre

The Roman invasion marked the beginning of Theatres in London. The theatres build by Romans were demolished with their decline. After that the entertainments were held in church squares, market places etc. In the sixteenth century, travelling Drama groups were formed all over the country. James Burbage, an actor in one of these drama groups marked the beginning of theatres in renaissance London.

[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="239" caption="James Burbage"][/caption]

Burbage was a talented actor and soon to be the lead of a drama group. According to the law passed in Britain in 1572, the moving drama groups must be parented by a noble, and it is by his/her name the drama group must ne known after. Else, the owners and the actors were punished severely. By this law, Burbage sorted the parentage of Lord Chamberlain and the drama group soon became famous as the 'Chamberlain Men'. As the 'Chamberlain Men' became widely accepted, another celebrity came forward to parentage the Chamberlain Men - Queen Elizabeth herself !. As a result, the drama group Chamberlain Men became widely popular as 'Queensmen'. Queen's parentage was a boon and confidence factor for Burbage who was by then thinking of a permanent theatre for his group. In 1576, he build a theatre at  Shoreditch. The theatre was known as the ' Tudor theatre '. In 1596, the theatre was moved to Black Frayers.

In 1597, James Burbage passed away. His son, Richard Burbage took the path laid off by his father. At those times, all Shakespearean  dramas were held at Black Frayers theatre. By then, the land lease with the owner has been expired and it was required to move the theatre to a new place. At that time,there was two groups between the dramatists. Chamberlain group(Queens), that includes the Shakespeare and the Admiral group. Admiral group had a theatre called 'Roseplay house' to stage their dramas. So, the building of a new theatre became a matter of proud for Shakespeare and his mates. But the funding for theatre construction was not that easy. Atlast every one decided that, Richard will make 25% investment in theatre and rest of the fund will be collected by the others in the group. In 1599, at Southwark, on the banks of Thames river, the construction of Globe Theatre was completed. The Globe theatre became  as famous as Shakespeare along with his dramas.

[caption id="attachment_245" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Globe Theatre, London"][/caption]

The architecture of the theatre reminds of a modern football stadium. The centre is open and stage is designed as if projecting from the centre, with green room behind it. There is a main door from here to the stage, along with two side doors. The theatre is fully made of wood. In its 3 floored design, it had the capacity to accommodate 3000 audience. The main achievement of the theatre was that fact that it was able to attract audiences from all levels of society.

The inaugural play of Globe theatre was 'Julius Caesar'  in 21st of September 1599. There was enough advertisement and along with the its purpose for hosting their Drama, the theatre also served the monetary requirements of Shakespeare and team.

Richard Burbage was the major share holder of the theatre and also the main actor. It's widely said that Shakespeare created characters with Richard in his mind. The best comedian actor at those times was another share holder of the theatre, William Kemp, along with Robert Armin. The main actors include, John Hemming and Henry Condell, wholater comprised all Shakespearian works and published 'First Folio'. In between, Shakespeare also shared stages at times along with the his writings. The ghost in Hamlet, The Adam in ' As you like',The Duke in 'Merchant of Venice',  Escalus in 'Romeo and Juliet' are the characters lifed by creator itself.

In 1613, the Globe theatre was consumed by fire. It was during the act out of 'Hentry VIII', co written by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. Though it was reconstructed and performances were started within a year, after a long 30 years, the theatre was completely dismantled in 1644.

[caption id="attachment_246" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="New Globe Theatre, London"][/caption]

Starting from 1987, a 10 year long hard work has lead to remake of old Globe theatre in its original design, very near to its old location itself. Today on 21st of September, at 41oth anniversary of the first drama in Globe theatre, lets remember a man who spilled life into many characters in his life time, and made a standard of his own in the history of modern English Literature.

Lousy Weekend

Tiring weekend in last couple of months. This is how I would explain the weekend so far. The weekend began by an accident that peeled off bit of my skin on hands and legs. It happened on friday evening. I was coming back from office and was about 100m away from home. I was so happy then, with the thought that I am reaching home early, that too on a friday evening. I was much excited, as I saw my home out there. Suddenly,as if from no where, from one of the side lanes, a biker jumped in front of me  and I pressed on brake with all my might. Later I understood that it was the worst thing to do a gravel road, that too wet by an afternoon drizzle. I was thrown off bike, slide a little on ground, peeling my hand skin. I was thanking God,  that I wasn't supposed to spend the weekend in the hospital, and for getting me out with much less impact than it has to be.
I went to hospital by night, had the wounds dressed and a shot of tetanus injection. But there are not the amazing things to blog about. By around 6:45 pm, my city shook mild marking 3.8 on richer scale. I was watching a movie on laptop. There was a booming sound, as if a jet was flying low. Then, the table and other furnitures start vibrating with a buzzing noise. The quake was so mild that, i had to watch the news then  to know that it was actually an earth quake. Again thanks to God that it went mild and no further tremors happened.
After that spooky friday, came the saturday. I didn't have much planning for saturday, but it ended up with three movies.
"Underworld", "Outsourced" and "Bowfinger" in three phases. All were great movies and It was a film day in my life after around 4-5 months.

The 15 most toxic places to live

I read a shocking tribute to Mother nature in MNN. Man's encroachment and attrocities to nature has always been peek high. We always close our eyes to this reality, the reality that we are killing nature every moment. Some of the extremes are captured by images which are listed below. The images really shows the gravity of the situation.

[caption id="attachment_219" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Citarum River, Indonesia"][/caption]

The Citarum has been called the world's most polluted river. Around five million people live in the river's basin, and most of them rely on its flow for their water supply.

[caption id="attachment_218" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Chernobyl, Ukraine"][/caption]

Chernobyl is the town in northern Ukraine home to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Once home to more than 14,000 residents, the town remains mostly uninhabited and unsafe today due to extensive radioactive contamination.

[caption id="attachment_225" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Linfen, China"][/caption]

Linfen has more air pollution than any other city in the world. Sitting at the heart of China's coal belt, smog and soot from industrial pollutants and automobiles blacken the air at all hours. It is said that if you hang your laundry here, it will turn black before it dries.

40 years of Internet

With the dot com boom, internet has substantially evolved as a part of life for majority of world's educated population. From 2000 to 2009, we have seen 360% hike in internet users.And more importantly,internet has changed from its early essence of holding information and sharing to a mass community to a gathering place where people interact , share and get together on different and common causes. The online communities like facebook, Orkut, Spaces are the places which I am talking about. Moreover, the internet application are on the row. If you take Firefox browser, there is add ons for anything and everything. The number of standalone applications which doesn't interact with the internet is quite rare. The mobile devices are all now streamed with internet so it makes us always plugged in, messaging and blogging on the run.

[caption id="attachment_212" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="40 years of Internet"][/caption]

Also, a new life has begun in internet space. A life in front of PC. I am not talking about long hours spend on  blogging, chatting etc, though it does has made a change in techs life style. It's about the virtual life that the internet provides. If you check the sites like www.there.com or www.cyodine.com/virtual life, you can see an entire virtual world in front of you. It will let you create a virtual identity of you and will let you live in a virtual world. Something like 'living in your dreams'. Many of the losers in life or the beginners just get lost dreaming in these virtual worlds. All they lost in life( not all, but at least a lot of them), all that they wish to get in their life will be in front of them behind the screen. This is one of the dumbest application of internet I have ever seen. exploiting the human ability to dream and making money through ads.

There are yet many downfalls of internet like porn, exploits for messaging by terrorist groups, identity theft , credit card frauds etc, but still internet has begun a new age of technological advancement. It is good to read along  that, Internet is celebrating its 40th year of birth this month. It had a silent start as a non commercial project for securely transferring data from one computer to another. It was a military project which later evolved as the largest virtual web of computers around the world.

For every inventions, man has found two faces. The same applies to internet also. But, when I look into the best side of it, I see that internet is allowing me to post my ideas to public, and not writing letter to editor of some news magazine and waiting with the hope, my article will printed someday. The Google always answers me like a God father whenever I am out of words. Gmail,yahoo etc is keeping me in touch of my friends, for whom I may not spend money to call on phone, but always ping on the chat window to know about their day.The freedom, the internet provides is of immense potential. When used properly, it will prove to the Technology that man kind could ever be proud of.

How it feels to be a donor

I felt like I am still a human to the core yesterday. To me, what it stakes to be a bit of humanism remaining in the heart in these times, is to have a mindset for a selfless donation. I realized the same after having the first blood donation of my life.

I don't know why I haven't donated my blood before? May be I haven't got any opportunities or as the saying goes, "There is always a first time". And now I have crossed the barrier. How I feel? Really amazing.  It feels like I have become part of a noble cause. As we know, blood could sometimes become a life saver. Based upon the today's requirements, our blood banks are still not able to serve all the needs for blood. There is always shortage for rare groups of blood. It is not required to put up a lot of brain to understand why there is scarcity of something that is readily available.

In India, majority of population still have old thoughts regarding blood donation. Elders teach the kids that blood donation could make you weak and fragile. A little more educated families will say that at extreme times, like when a relative is in requirement of blood, the donation can be made. Many of these speculations are based on ignorance. so, as a 'Bloggerville Donor', I am citing some common faq's regarding blood donation, There are mostly known ones and nothing new, but as a responsible citizen, I like to spread the message.

Q:    Who is a healthy donor?
A:     Any person within the age group of 18 - 60 years with a body weight as minimum 45 kgs, and having hemoglobin content as minimum 12.5 gm%.

Q:     Does a donor need to do anything special before donation?
A:     The donor should eat at regular mealtimes and drink plenty of fluids.

Q:     How long does the donation take?
A:     The procedure is done by skilled, specially trained technicians and takes three to eight minutes. However, from start to finish (filling form, post donation rest etc) the entire process should take upwards of 35 minutes.

Q:     Does the needle hurt the entire time?
A:     There may be a little sting when the needle is inserted, but there should be no pain during the donation.

Q:     Does the donor suffer from any harmful effects after donating blood donation?
A:     Absolutely not, rather a donor after having given blood voluntarily gets a feeling of great pleasure, peace and bliss. Soon, within a period of 24 - 48 hours, the same amount of new blood gets formed in the body, which helps the donor in many ways. His own body resistance improves, the circulation improves, and he himself feels healthier than before.

Q:     Does a donor need to rest after donating blood?
A:     Yes. The donor needs rest, preferably lying down, so that the amount of blood that has been donated soon gets poured into the circulation from the body pools in a natural way. The donor should take it easy for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Q:     Can a donor work after donating blood?
A:     Of course! Routine work is absolutely fine after the initial rest. Rigorous physical work should be avoided for a few hours.

Q:     What special diet should a donor follow after giving blood?
A:     After resting for a while a donor is given some liquid (fluid) to take. It may be a cup of coffee or milk or fruit juice alongwith a few biscuits or fruit. The donor needs no other special diet. A routine balanced diet is adequate. The donor's blood gets replenished within 24 - 48 hours.

Q:     How long will it take for the body to replenish the blood?
A:     The body replaces blood volume or plasma within 24 hours. Red cells need about four to eight weeks for complete replacement.

Q:     How frequently a donor can donate blood?
A:     Three months time between donations is a very safe interval.

Q:     Do any diseases debar a donor from giving blood?
A:     Yes, if the donor has suffered from any of the under-mentioned diseases: -

• Fever: He should not have suffered from fever for the past 15 days.

• Jaundice: A donor should not have his blood tested positive for AUSTRALIA ANTIGEN.

• Blood transmitted diseases: Like Syphilis, Malaria, Filaria etc. debar a donor from donating blood till he is treated and is free from them.

• Drugs: If a donor is taking drugs like Aspirin, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetics, hormones, corticosteroids etc., he is unfit to donate blood.

• AIDS. No person having HIV positive can be allowed to donate blood.

Q:     Are there any other benefits of blood donation?
A:     Yes, blood donation is a noble, selfless service! It gives the donor a feeling of joy and contentment. Also this is an expression of love for Mankind, as blood knows no caste, colour, creed, religion or race, country, continent or sex.

Signs Of Life

Life is an amazing phenomenon. Science no matter of its superior advancements, has never been able to create life. It signifies how beautiful and ethereal, the life could be. Life from its atomic level to the massive creature level, has always amazing me with its uniqueness, adaptability and its thirst for survival.

Evolution chain has placed humans at the top of life chain. Man has become unique and conqueror because of  the single control point called brain , which has evolved over any other living being. But,we never look at the other life forms that add beauty to the geneology of earth. The wide variety of colours, designs, patterns that plants and other life forms have created is nothing compared to the races of humans created on the earth naturally. All designs the humans could impart, the colours that are filled are artificial  or man made. The truthfulness of nature was always not there in human creativity.

Humans were always quested to find other life forms in a different habitat than earth. The quest still going on with space explorations. The scientist had welcomed the evidences of life being once present in Mars. But, let me ask you, just a simple question. How can we rule out a possible existence of a superior race than humans existing light years away from us and watching us? Though it brings chills, if is not a possibility that we can just rule out.

The only word I have to my fellow humans is that, when we advance, think about the centuries old other life forms too. All evolved on this cradle for a cause. If we continue to destroy them for our cause, what will happen if some highly evolved utopian alien makes us their bio fuel, some thing similar to the movie ' The Matrix'. Just have a thought about it.

You've got to go on this ride

Disney has always been for the kids.I was just thinking, if Disney ever starts to grow up, and bring in some rides for the adults, what could it have as special? The breath taking cruisers and spinners are there, but for the adults, it could be a beer bath pool or more crazy like a hard core rock concert at the highest point of the ride, These are all I could think off, without getting myself nasty !!!!!

Music sounded better on cassette..best yet to come

How many of our next generation will know that there existed an audio media called cassette players right between the gramophone records and the CD/DVD era. I still remember hearing my first songs in a cassette player when I was 6. It was my Uncle's home made Stereo system with cassette player which produced an amazing output. It was then, that I had started to enjoy the magic of music. My heart swam through the voices of colonial cousins, shook along with the MJ and floated with the beats of Enigma, The malayalam melodies didn't interest me then, since I was not that grown to understand the beauty of words in the lyrics. Then came the CD, which I didn't use much, since I got ,my computer by then. I had songs ripped from audio Cd's stored in my pc, because buying audio cd's were expensive then. Soon, mp3 evolved and I am still jogging with it at 320kbps quality. There is much better encoding available, but I prefer this version, due to the ease of download. Storage is not an issue now, since hdd space is beyond the limit.

Is the current format of music is the best? I never think so. Music has evolved much since its origin, and the humanity's unstoppable urge to preserve the music at its very best quality will create more technological advances than we ever imagined.

It took a few times before I liked Matrix

There are quite a lot of movies that needs repeated viewing to get the essence. For me, one of the most remembered one is the movie - "The Matrix".

The concept of Matrix has been very new and the story was far beyond my imagination, When I first saw that movie, I was dumb stuck. All I could enjoy was the cool action sequence, nothing with the story. Second time, When I watched the movie, I started to get the cream of Matrix. Then.I don't remember how many times, I have watched the sequel again and again, due to mere passion. But, each time, I saw it, more and more I enjoyed the dialogues, visual effects and the cool Stunts. But I must say, apart from the first movie, none of the other movies in the sequel kept that quality. The matrix II was also good, but matrix revolutions never got me through. The way the sequel ends has never been upto the expectations.

My favorite teacher is Asha Teacher

There was always something special about Asha teacher. During School days, she was the most respected for some students and for some, she was most unexpected evil during the most unexpected hour. Because she always drops in the middle of our troubled moments with the thin stick she used to carry. I still remember, she never used the stick much. But, it was her mighty tongue that really went right through our hearts. Her sound stands above all. She stills have that mighty sonority !!!!

Asha Teacher was always calm, happy faced and more importantly had the command of obedience among the students. I can't recollect even one student of any grade disobeying her words. Though some hated her, even they did respect her from their heart. But at the time, we were kids, she was content and insisted on discipline. She had the strict habit of making us talk in English. Though we rebelled against it at our very best in those times, I still believe that her effort is what made the base for us to speak the language in the way I do now,

I won't say she is the best teacher in the world. But she always had her own way of looking at things. Otherwise, how come she would have discovered in me a good speaker? I was good in writing at my school days, but was very reluctant to come out in front of audience to speak up.It was she, who made the first attempt to make me participate in a elocution program. Though the first attempt was an unforgotten tragedy for me, it laid the seed in me to improve upon myself.

After we completed schooling, my classmates and myself used to visit the school often. Each time, I met her after the school life,I sensed the love she had for the students more and more deeply. I understood from her that being an acceptable teacher is a simple logic: Love the students and teach them as a mother. Who could teach you better than a mother? And best teachers in our life always stand equal as our Mother.

Amazing Chain Reaction

I have seen videos of many chain sequences using domino or equipments. The most awesome example is the award winning ad by Honda. Today I just crossed over an entirely different concept of creating the chain reaction.

Fire -  an uncontrollable element of nature has been tamed by a group of guys to create an awesome sequence of fireworks. The 4 minutes of video just caught me to the seats. Here it is, watch it and you will surely admire the hard work and the creativity behind it.

Onam Tales

This is a very late report of Onam. But the 'Bloggerville' neighbours will understand that I was having a long vacation during these holidays. I also had the trip to the district of Thrissur, also known as the Cultural Capital of Kerala.

On the fourth Onam evening, I visited the backwater at Veli. A beautiful  place, where the lake and sea is separated by a tiny strip of land. Apart from this geographical beauty,Veli is also landscaped as a tourist village, which was recently re modified slightly. The park along with, has beautiful sculptures by one of the famous feminine sculptor 'kanayi Kunjiraman'. He is famous for his massive rock works based on female nudity.

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Along with the rock carvings, landscaping-sculpture of a female lying on ground is also an amazing work. Should really appreciate the creativity!!. The sculptures within the artificial pool also pin points the talent of the artist. I had an awesome time capturing these works of genius in my camera.

After quite few hours in there, I again moved out to the light laden palace grounds. The mood was amazing. All were wandering out, moving from shops to food outlets, then to open theatres where cultural dance programs were going on. It was an amazing evening and a wonderful Onam weekend.

But it wasn't the end. I had a 2 day trip to the Thrissur, where I had the chance to see the 'pulikali' , where performers painted like tigers and hunters in bright yellow, red, and black dance to the beats of instruments like Udukku and Thakil. There is a procession by members of different clubs from all over the city who are wearing tiger make-up. Also, I visited the 'punnathur kotta', where around 75 elephants belonging to the Guruvayoor temple are housed, cared and trained. More about that in my next post.

Onam Thoughts

Another 'Onam Days' are at the brink. The celebrations has started all over the city. The people are busy emptying their wallets and buying goodies with the 'Onam' Offers. I feel like all were waiting just for this moment to buy new things to their home, to make the best out of the 'Onam discounts and offers'.

For me, Onam picture from my child hood days often had more colors than today. I still can collect those fresh memories from my school days. My Grand mother ,whose house is adjacent to my house, used to decorate the front of her house with "Atham", an arrangement with flowers. The Atham is decorated on all ten days of the Onam festival, the last day being the grand one. The D day also known as 'Thiruonam', features a superb 'Atham' a.k.a 'Pookkalam' on the courtyard. My uncle buys more flowers , in different colors. The final result is an elegant flower pattern.

[caption id="attachment_103" align="aligncenter" width="448" caption="Atham"][/caption]

Beautiful moments in Onam cannot be remembered without the walk through the city night. During Onam festival, Government decorates all the buildings and the palace grounds at 'Kanakakkunnu' . The road will be fully crowded and the people will be moving like a slow stream. I will walking holding my uncle's hand, face angles atop the building walls and the amusements arranged along the road.

Painful moments also occurred twice during my Childhood. I was aged 3 or 4 then. I was riding on the carrier behind my uncle's bicycle. We went to the junction where big guys in our locality create a big 'Atham' . It was a massive flower decoration with lots and lots of flowers. It was a great treat for eyes. After that, while we were returning home, the pain of Onam happened. As we were about reach back to home, the cycle fell to a massive gutter, I was standing on the back carrier of the cycle and holding on to the Uncle's back. The violent shake made my foot slip and my ankle got twisted between the cycle rim. The pain lasted for the entire Onam vacation and made it the one of the worst Onam ever of my life.

Let me come back to the present. Now, the Onam time has shifted from the celebration of equableness, fullness and the prosperity. Now, the entire celebration is shifted to celebration of money. The age of commercialization and the spendthrift society has moved away from the old ethics. Now, Onam is a time to spend money and the city is full of options to spend it. The textile, electronics, all kinds of commodities that we can imagine is available with lots of discounts and offers associated with it. The offers draw people and a great deal of business happens during this time. I think this is the peek business time in Kerala. Even I too became the part of the Shopping festival. My wife and myself strolled through the stalls in palace grounds and was really fascinated by the handicraft works by the rural people and the material collections made out of bamboo. I too made a few purchases . The collection of home made pickles from Rajasthan was irresistible. I also bought a pair of Sony rechargeable battery and its charger for my 'Canon cyber shot'. My week end plans for a cross Kerala trip do demands the camera to be ready.

For the non Indian's readers for the blog, let me include a brief description of the Onam festival and the legend.

A long long time ago, an Asura (demon) king called Mahabali ruled Kerala. He was a wise, benevolent and judicious ruler and beloved of his subjects. Soon his fame as an able king began to spread far and wide, but when he extended his rule to the heavens and the netherworld, the gods felt challenged and began to fear his growing powers. Presuming that he might become over-powerful, Aditi, the mother of Devas pleaded with Lord Vishnu to curtail Mahabali's powers.

Vishnu transformed himself into a dwarf called Vamana and approached Mahabali while he was performing a yajna and asked for alms. Pleased with the dwarf brahmin's wisdom, Mahabali granted him a wish. The Emperor's preceptor, Sukracharya warned him against making the gift, for he realized that the seeker was no ordinary person. But the Emperor's kingly ego was boosted to think that God had asked him for a favor. So he firmly declared that there is no greater sin than going back on one's promise. He kept his word.

The Vamana asked for a simple gift — three paces of land — and the king agreed to it. Vishnu in the guise of Vamana then increased his stature and with the first step covered the sky, blotting out the stars, and with the second, straddled the netherworld. Realising that Vamana's third step will destroy the earth, Mahabali offered his head as the last step.

Vishnu's fatal third step pushed him to the netherworld, but before banishing him to the underworld Vishnu granted him a boon. Since he was attached to his kingdom and his people, he was allowed to return once a year from exile. Onam is the celebration that marks the homecoming of King Mahabali. It is the day when a grateful Kerala pays a glorious tribute to the memory of this benign king who gave his all for his subjects.