Adah remembers being young, waking up to her grandmother and great grandmother’s loving voices for the Vishu kani. “They would cover my eyes ever so gently and take me to the temple we set up at home every year. The first thing I would see when I opened my eyes was a moorti of Krishna. He would be decorated with yellow flowers, with rice, fruits and vegetables placed to him as offerings. It’s believed this would bring me good luck and prosperity for the year,” she tells us.
Dressing up is a big part of any festival and it’s no different for Vishu, says Adah. “I have a quirky sense of style and while I spend most of the year in colourful, wacky outfits, this is the day I like to go completely traditional and tone it down,” he says. The reason being, she still remembers how she felt the first time she wore a set mundu lovingly selected by the elders in the family. “It was such a special moment for me. With malli poo in hair so long that I could sit on it, I remember feeling so beautiful,” she adds.
And that’s exactly why even as Adah’s style evolved through the years, her Vishu look has not. “There’s something comforting in the simplicity of wearing the kasavu saree, putting flowers in my hair, wearing a bottu. It takes me back to my childhood in Kerala no matter which part of the world I am in on this day. If I’m in the mood to jazz it up a little, I add sneakers to the look if I’m heading out. But the best part has to be when my mom finishes the look with a loving touch of chandanam on my forehead,” she says, rounding off.
In picture: Adah Sharma with her family’s buffalo Meenakshi
