Thrissur is all set for Pooram festival

Thrissur, Apr 25 (UNI) After prolonged legal battles and uncertainty the famed Thrissur Pooram, the festival of festivals, will be staged here on April 27 and 28 with all traditional fervour and scintillating firework displays.

In the next two days, Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala, will be in the grip of ''Pooram fever'' and each and every person, irrespective of caste and religion, will work together for the smooth conduct of the festival.

According to P R Ravichandran, Secretary of the Paramekkavu Devasom, one of the organisers of the Pooram, the festival was organised by the people and they know how to conduct it. ''We are only the organisers and the festival is conducted by the people,'' Mr Ravichandran added.

The Pooram, which attracts thousands of foreign tourists and lakhs of Malayalees around the world every year, is a major event with a grand spectacle of fireworks, parading of caparisoned elephants, colourful ''kudamattom'' (exchange of different types of parasols) and the famous ''elanjithara melam''.

The legal tangles over parading of elephants and ban on fireworks display had disappointed ''Pooram'' enthusiasts. However, the High Court permitted conduct of the Pooram under certain conditions.

''Enthuttu pooram aanayum vedikkettum illathe'' (what festival without elephants and fireworks), says Varathunni, a 58-year-old vendor near the Thekkinkadu maidan, where the cultural extravaganza is staged annually. ''We the Thrissur people cannot imagine organising the festival without elephant parade and pyrotechnics,'' he added.

This was the reaction of every one living in this district. From dawn people from every nook and corner of the district would flow to the city to witness and participate in the pooram.

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