After consecutive floods,resilient Ker set to celebrate Onam

A security alert notwithstanding, it is Onam time again and Keralites are getting ready to celebrate the biggest festival of the state putting behind the havoc wrought by two consecutive floods.

As Kerala gets into the festive mood, police are maintaining tight vigil with the army receiving information that there may be a terror attack in southern parts of the country.

Unmindful of all this, at her ancestral house in Pandalam in Pathanamthitta district, retired government employee Susheela Devi is busy preparing 'ethakka upperi' (banana chips) besides 'kaliyadakka' (fried rice ball) for her grandchildren.

Being the festival eve, it is a decades-old practice for this sexagenarian woman to prepare traditional snacks to gift to her grandchildren besides laying a floral carpet on the courtyard and preparing sumptuous feast on 'Thiruvonam.'