From Kerala to Arunachal: How a Malayali teacher brought Onam to the hills

NSCBAV School, located in the picturesque village of Karo in Arunachal Pradesh, was once facing closure because of a severe shortage of students. Today, the school has found itself in the national spotlight, thanks to a viral reel featuring its students celebrating Onam.

The video shows the students marking Onam, the national festival of Kerala, in traditional attire, creating a colourful pookkalam and dancing to popular Malayalam tracks. The celebration has already garnered millions of views across social media platforms. The video even caught the attention of Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, who shared it on his social media handle.
The eight-minute-long video features the students dancing to folk songs popularised by Kalabhavan Mani, as well as trending Tamil songs such as ‘Kavane.’

Behind the students’ energetic performances is 28-year-old Malappuram native Ali Ashkar, a teacher at the school, who trained the students and shared the video on social media. But the grand Onam celebration was about much more than a viral dance video.
All the teachers dressed in traditional Kerala attire, with the men wearing mundu and the women in kasavu sarees. The students, meanwhile, came dressed in Galu, a traditional attire of Arunachal Pradesh. The school premises were decorated with fresh banana leaves, while the students and teachers created a beautiful pookkalam with colourful flowers collected from homes across the village.

The teachers travelled more than 200 kilometres to purchase ingredients for the Onam sadya, including rice, sambar, rasam, papadam, pickles, payasam and banana chips. The teachers, all natives of Arunachal Pradesh, prepared the feast with the help and guidance of Ashkar. The students then enjoyed the sumptuous sadya served on banana leaves. Adding to the festive spirit was a little Maveli, dressed in the traditional attire and ornaments of the Bokar tribe. His presence beautifully captured the unity and inclusive spirit at the heart of Onam.

From Kerala to the mountains of Arunachal
Ashkar’s journey to Karo is as remarkable as the story of the celebration itself. After completing his BA in Kerala, he moved to Punjab to pursue an MA and later travelled to Puducherry for his B.Ed, the Malappuram native told Manorama Online. He then worked in Kashmir for some time before clearing the entrance examination for an M.Ed programme at a university in Siang, close to the India-China border.

While pursuing his M.Ed between 2022 and 2024, Ashkar fell in love with the mesmerising Karo village. Located deep in the mountains, the remote settlement has limited internet access and electricity. So isolated is the village that it is difficult to even locate it on Google Maps. After completing his course, Ashkar found a teaching position at a school in Karo through an NGO. He joined at a crucial time. The school was struggling with declining student enrolment and a lack of hostel facilities, and was facing the possibility of closure. The institution was subsequently taken over by the NGO in collaboration with the government.

Ashkar soon became more than just a teacher to the students. Today, he regularly documents life at the school and its hostel on his Instagram handle, teacher_tales, sharing snippets of the children’s daily routines, activities and celebrations. He is often asked why he does not return to Kerala to teach. His answer is simple: “Anyone could teach in Keralam.”