As Ramadan this year coincided with Onam, one of the most important festivals of Keralites, most restaurants and textile shops owned by members of this South Indian community lost much of the business associated with the festival. Onam festival was celebrated in the Kingdom on Friday. “I have lost more than SR25,000 due to Onam coming in Ramadan,” said a textile shop owner. Up until last year people were eagerly coming to my shop to purchase their new clothes or “Onakkodi.” But this year the trend has changed because the holy month coincided with Onam festivities. Onam is an annual festival and it is celebrated wherever there are Keralites – and that is in almost every country in the world. Out of about seven million expatriates in the Kingdom, around a million expatriates are from the Indian state of Kerala. “We made all arrangements to attract Onam celebrating customers from Kerala, but compared to last year our Onam business was dull,” said Najeeb, a supervisor at Dammam Shopping Center. This center is famous among Keralites for its fresh Indian vegetables, coconuts and meat. Onam traditions such as the ‘Pookkalam' or the flower carpet, new clothes ‘Onakkodi' and special vegetable dishes with banana leaves as plates called ‘Onasadya' are a must everywhere in the world to celebrate the festival. “We could not make an Onam feast in our restaurant this year and due to that we lost business worth thousands of riyals,” said the owner of the Rose Restaurant in a Dammam town. “Last year the restaurant served the feast in banana leaves with 20 types of vegetable curries which costs SR25 per head. “People made advance booking and queued to enjoy the festival feast, ‘Onasaddya,'” the owner said. __
