Thrissur Pooram Exhibition

Oru kappu Kaaja Chhaya Kudikkoo
Kuthiraye pole kuthikkoo!!!

The above 2 lines in mallu would roughly translate into "Drink one cup of Kaaja Tea and trot like a horse!!"This is a sample of the innumerous advertisements which are belted over the loud speaker at the pooram exhibition. In the sweltering heat of Thrissur, who would want to have a glass of Tea?
I strongly suspect that the lead male and female announcers for these advertisements are always the same year after the year!But then exhibition would not be exhibitions without these back ground announcements.I went for the exhibition after a gap of 3 years and nothing much has changed.The same old Textile merchants with their collection of "bedsheets from Rajasthan" (Pooram exhibition used to be the annual bedsheet-upgrade time for my mom, till some time back! It also used to be the time to buy "Good Quality" knives etc for the kitchen, though i wonder how much of a quality instrumnet that had proved to be!!). Then there are the bangles/toys/fancy items shops which repeat themselves at almost surprisingly regular intervals.(The pooram exhibition would contain approximately 60 stalls in a big snake-like line).

At strategic positions, there will be the refreshment stalls and i can recollect that we used to put on our act of being tired/fatigued when we were about 2 stalls near to the refreshment stalls!!!. In those days, an outing like this was the only time when we got to drink aerated bottled drinks(Read "Limca"/"Thums UP").
I would be eagerly looking forward to visit the only book-store in the exhibition (excluding the other categories of bookstalls viz religious ones) and would have had already elicited a promise from my dad to get me a "Hardy Boys" or a "Three investigators"!!Often, re-freshments would be had from the stall nearby where they would be selling sugar-cane juice(simply mouth-watering!!). This time, however i was left wondering whether they would be using good water to prepare those drinks!!!
Then we have those "Bubble men"..these are the people who sell the soap bubbles for 5 bucks. They used to be a must-buy in any visit, although they never managed to reach home!!The last stop would be for the second round of refreshment at the last stall in the exhibition - the one run by the Indian coffee House. But i was saddened to find that space converted into an office, with the coffee-house shifted.

Pooram exhibitions is pretty much the same as i remember it to be 15 years ago...just hope that it remains the same...

Some things you would never have seen 10 years back in a pooram exhibition
TATA AIG insurance stall
Tread-mill stall

Another note: Aluva people might brag about their Aluva shivarathri mela and Cochin people about the ubiquitous carnivals, but there is nothing like the Thrissur Pooram Exhibition!!