A Wandering Mind

And so it begins.. .. our tour of the Golus for this year... beginning with the one at my mom's place in Thane. It is much simpler than in the past years, but nevertheless just as creative. Here is what the Golu looks like...

Waking up this morning, the first sound that came to my ears was the chanting of the Lalita Sahasranama from the nearby temple. "And so Navaratri begins" was my first thought... an auspicious beginning to an auspicious day! 

One of the Golus we look forward to seeing every year is the one at an uncle's place in Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar. A retired engineer, we admire him for his patience and attention for detail which make his golu among the best we have ever seen.

After two posts of temples of the Goddess, it is time for some Bommai Kolus. The first one this year is from my mom's place in Thane....

The Chedda Nagar Murugan Temple has an interesting way of celebrating Navaratri. The focal point of the celebration is the elaborate homam (sacrifice) which is conducted over all the nine days of the festival. The temple is packed with devotees waiting for a glimpse of the sacrifice offered in front of a pot of water, which is invested with the power of the sacrifice, and then poured over the idol of the goddess. Sitting for any part of the homam is impossible when it comes to Samhith, and I have no hopes of attending any of the events there for the next few years. However, there is something which draws even Samhith to the temple religiously for all the nine days..... This is the image of the goddess made for the homam . Every day, for nine days, the decoration changes, and the image represents a different form of the goddess. It might depict a story, or just a form of the goddess, but it is interesting enough for Samhith to want to go and see which arrangement h...

Over the last ten days, I have taken you along on a tour through the South Indian celebration of Navaratri in Mumbai. It is now time for something different. I usually try to take Samhith for the Ramleela as well as other Navaratra Pandals. Dandiya is something I havent been able to introduce him to, and that is mainly because I dont dance at all! However, if there is one celebration we manage to catch, it is the Bengali Durga Puja. Somehow, the image of Mahishasura Mardini seems to attract me each year, as do the decorations..... So, here is the Chembur Durga Puja this year......

Some of you might be bored of Kolus by now, after seeing so many over the last few days! However, before I close the Navaratri chapter for this year, here are the last three kolu arrangements for this year..... The Fine Arts Society, Chembur , has a mammoth 15 steps Kolu which draws visitors over all the ten days of the festival. Besides, there is also usually an interesting decoration based on a theme.  This year, the theme was a dual one - Of Andal and Meera, represented picturesquely with handmade dolls!

Some of you have been wondering where we get all the ideas for our kolus. The answer is actually quite simple - from each other! We keep looking out for ideas, and happily pick up others's ideas for our own kolu! Why else do you think Samhith is so eager to go and visit others' kolus? Besides, creativity does run in the family! Growing up, I kept hearing about the fantastic and innovative arrangements my uncles made when they were younger, and Shankar's uncles and aunts have a very creative streak too! No wonder Samhith is so enthusiastic about this!

Any festival signifies a hectic time, but none more so than Navaratri! We have to visit all our relatives and friends to see what they have come up with for the festival, catch up with all the kolus in the vicinity, see the latest arrangement at the temple, and over and above all this, we also have to play host to everyone who visits us! It can get really hectic, especially with school on in full swing, but its an enjoyable ten days! This is practically the only time of the year we get to meet so many of our said relatives and friends. Everyone is too busy the rest of the year with their own lives to go and meet anyone else! Besides, we also get some wonderful ideas for our kolu next year!  Since the people we visit are almost usually the same, the dolls and kolus are almost usually the same too! Only sometimes do we see something new, so this time, I decided not to bore you all with the same kolu pics from everyones' houses, but just some pics of things I found special or inter...

For the last three years , the focal point of our Navaratri Kolu has been Samhith's train set. Our entire decoration is arranged around the track, and o0ur tunnel last year was a huge hit with all the kids! It was no surprise therefore that Samhith wanted a tunnel this year too! With the idea of giving you all something different to look forward to, we have set up a village this year around the Kolu steps. Without more ado, let me invite you into our home for our kolu.... This is what you see as soon as you step in...

Its time for yet another festival - one which gives me the maximum opportunity to use my creativity - Navaratri - the festival of nine nights.  These nine nights (and days) are dedicated to the goddess in her myriad forms, and this festival is a celebration of not just the mother goddess, but also her creations. For us, South-Indians, Navaratri is a time for the Bommai Kolu (or Golu) , a series of steps with dolls placed on them, and also a time for socialization. The kolu represents the different stages and aspects of life. The bottom steps represent life as we know it - as humans. We therefore use them to depict scenes from life. The higher steps are meant to represent our quest for divinity - which is represented by dolls showing stories from mythology involving gods and demigods. The highest steps are used to show the Gods, who are, after all, believed to be above us all! Apart from the dolls placed on the steps, we also decorate an area around the steps, usually bas...

The Subramania Samaj Temple in Chedda Nagar, where I live, is a temple dedicated to Lord Muruga or Subramanya. However, the temple also houses other deities such as Ganesha, Krishna, Ayyappan, Shiva, Durga and Hanuman. The temple thus celebrates a wide range of festivals, among them, Navaratri, dedicated to the Devi. For the nine days and nights of the festival, the temple resounds to the sounds of Sanskrit Slokas - from the readings of the Devi Mahatmyam in the mornings to the chantings during the Chandi Homam in the evenings. For those of us who live in the vicinty, the sound is almost like a background music, one we notice only when it stops! However ,the highlight at the temple (at least for me and Samhith!) is the decoration made every evening for the homam, depicting one form of the Goddess. For each of the nine days, we get to see a new arrangement, one we eagerly rush to see. This is the only part of the temple where photography is allowed, and it is now quite common to see y...

In my last post, Navatatri 2010 - Day 10 - Part1 , I spoke about Vijayadasami, the conclusion of Navaratri. However, there's another aspect of the same day too, which is why this post is in two parts. While Navaratri i s a festival dedicated to the goddess, it is also associated with Lord Rama and his defeat of Ravana. All over the north, this event is celebrated on a grand scale as Ram Leela - the acts of Rama. Over nine days and nights, actors enact the roles of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Ravana, among the many characters of the Ramayana, living their parts as they play it. The tenth day or Dusshera is when this epic concludes with Lord Rama aiming an arrow at Ravana's heart, and an effigy of the dreaded asura goes up in flames. I last attended Ram Leela as a kid when I was in Delhi, about Samhith's age, and don't remember much about it. The urge to see it again was great, but it didn't look possible, until this year, when I learnt that there was one being conduc...

The nine days of the festival are over, and the tenth day is a fitting conclusion to nine days of revelry. Signifying the victory of good over evil, it heralds new beginnings and is a day for starting new ventures.  Vijayadasami is a day not just for celebrations, but also auspicious for starting something new. This year, Samhith begins his official studies in Carnatic Music (sounds great, doesn't it? But its just an euphemism for saying that his new music classes started today :)) We started off the day at the Fine Arts Society, Chembur, where we officially began the class by paying our respects to the teachers and repeating a couple of lines of the new songs from her. However, the main attraction there is their spectacular Golu. Spectacular is the right word, for they have 15 huge steps full of dolls, each one better than the other! Most of them are huge and so well crafted, it is a pleasure to see them year after year. They also manage to get some in...

We have been celebrating Navaratri the southern way for the past 8 days, and it is time for a change... Today, I have no more Golus for you, but I would love to take you along with me to the nearest Durga Puja Celebrations. The last 3 days of Navaratri are eagerly awaited by the Bengalis in my colony (and the entire neighbourhood), and they rush towards the only Bengali Durga Puja Celebration in the vicinity. Of course, this mass movement of humanity does lead to colossal traffic jams, but then again, we are used to them anyway, and who cares, when we get to celebrate just for 3 days! Anyone agree with me??? I am writing this post close to midnight, hoping to be done before then, and thus keeping up my resolution of a-post-a-day-during-navaratri! So, let me get straight to the point and take you along with me through my photographs! Here is the decoration this year .... Any guesses? The theme t his time is the Mysore Palace, commemorating the 400th year of Dasara Celebrations ther...