we went to the onachantha at ansar mall yday evening. it was bustling with mallus from dubai and sharjah. in fact the first thing that comes to my mind when i think of onachantha back home is heavily crowded vegetable and grocery stalls.. here the main stalls are that of property builders in kochi. dont know what relation is there between builders and onam... they can make good business coz  a lot of mallus gather together at one place. the other attraction was some show by hit 96.7 fm radio.. most of the visitors flocked there to be a part of it or to see the gimmicks of the contestants. i didnt find any serious shopping take place there. most of the stalls were kind of advertisements for new products. parthas had a good stall with kerala sarees and mundu.
overall, the onachantha didnt come  up to the expectations for the kind of publicity given by organizers.