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| You are here: COL home > Festivals & Religion > Navarathri > Articles > Golu at home | ||||||||||||||||
Celebrating Navarathri It was a small beginning - with only three steps displaying few dolls just to give a start. That was in It is just amazing to think of the growth of our Kolu. But for those five years when we had to be in different places around the country, we always celebrated Navrathri this way every year (that is the tradition too) and even in those years when we had to be away, we had at least carried few dolls just to display them in a smaller way. After we settled in Chennai about 15 years ago, we felt the need for expanding our Kolu with more steps, and obviously more dolls had been added. That was the time when thematic sets of dolls – like a ‘marriage set’, ‘Utsavam set’, ‘Krishna with Gopikas’ and many more such dolls had come to the market. The Khadhi Gramaodhyog Bhavan plays a leading part in it by bringing in new themes every year and the dolls’ exhibition they conduct is really a feast to our eyes. I still remember the day when my beloved son brought this ‘cricket set’ home and the immense joy with which he arranged those players around the field. And still this set takes a prime position in our Kolu.
Since Kolu is an annual feature, we always buy few dolls wherever we find them. The two modern merchants and the porcelain dolls of Radha and Krishna are from Agra. There are some dolls in dancing postures that we bought from Puri. My husband has a particular taste for collecting these dolls and we take utmost care in preserving the dolls. They have to be packed well and kept in boxes in the attic. Navrathri, as a tradition also promotes socialising. There is festive spirit in the atmosphere. It is an occasion to invite our friends and relatives to our homes and offer them ‘thamboolam’. Hailing Devi by singing devotional songs that please Her is a common feature of Navrathri. The celebration of the victory Goddess Durga over the demon Mahishasura come to an end with Vijaya Dasami on the tenth day, with all the dolls moving to the attic only to be back next year by the same time! Navarathri Dusshera Hina - Matsuri Legends Shopping special Golu exhibition R . Bharathi |
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the same year of our wedding when my parents-in-law were here at the time of
Navarathri and so my mother-in-law wanted us to start the Kolu, the same year as that was the tradition of our family. So, we all went to the bazaar and purchased some cute little dolls that would suit our budget and space. They consisted mainly of Ganesh, Parvathi or Ambal, Karthikeya, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswathi and a Dasavatharam set. My mother also gave me some
dolls on her part. They are all still there, taking their due place in our Kolu, which to day has grown into a big one with nine steps and nearly 150 dolls.
It has been the tradition to add a new doll every year to the Kolu. Ashta Lakshmi (8 forms of Sri Lakshmi – like Dhana Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi, Vidhya Lakshmi...
), the Seshasayanam, Mount Kailas with Lord Siva and Goddess Parvathi with their children Ganesh and Karthikeya were all added one after the other.
We had also purchased some of the dolls from some roadside shops near Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore. Now it seems all the nine steps are jam -packed and hardly there is any space left for a new doll. 
