Malayalees in UAE ring in new year

Malayalees in the UAE welcomed their harvest festival of Vishu with lights, Vishukkani (auspicious sights), Vishu Kaineettam (blessings from family elders) and scrumptious sadya (traditional Malayalee feast) ensuring prosperity in the coming year.

A Malayalee family enjoying the 26-item sadya (meal) at a restaurant in Al Qusais, Dubai on the occasion of Vishu on Tuesday. — KT photo by Juidin Bernarrd

Vishu is celebrated because it is the first day of the Malayalam calendar. Malayalee expatriates in Dubai and Sharjah celebrated the festival with fanfare and vigour.

Rahul Menon (29), a software engineer hailing from Thrishur, his wife and their cousins took time off work to celebrate the festival. Menon said: “I personally have a lot of fond childhood memories of Vishu. It is a festival I won’t miss, especially as a kid, I would look forward to getting kaineettam from the family elders.”

The most important event in Vishu, according to Menon, is the Vishukkani, which literally means “the first thing seen on the day of Vishu after waking up”.

“It is a ritual arrangement of auspicious articles intended to signify prosperity. It varies from family to family. However, common articles include rice, fruits and vegetables, betel leaves, arecanut, metal mirror, gold, yellow flowers called konna, holy scriptures and coins,” he added.

Hypermarkets like Nesto at Al Zahra Street in Sharjah and Lulu at Al Qusais in Dubai had special discounted prices for fruits and vegetables and other Vishu-related delicacies.

Some supermarkets were also serving the special lunch.

Several Malayalees, who after celebrating festivities at home, went out to popular Malayalee restaurants for Vishu sadya.

Shruti Ravi, an accountant, said: “Cooking the sadya can be a tedious task, so a lot of Malayalees like me reserve tables in restaurants and enjoy a good meal along with our family members.”

“Though the flavours are not the same as a home-cooked meal, the sadya in most restaurants here is very good. Most of us look forward to the payasam, a sweet 
dessert.”

Vijayan Nellippunathil, one of the partners of Calicut Notebook, a Malayalee-themed restaurant in Dubai, said crowds thronged all three branches of the chain for having sadya.

“The response has been excellent this year. We served about 3,500 sadyas, which included 2,000 takeaways and 1,500 in-dining. We began serving lunch at 12pm and continued till about 3.30pm. The numbers are from all three branches of our restaurant. The sadya included 26 items and it was purely vegetarian,” said Nellippunathil. Each meal was priced at Dh30.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com