Navarathri 2008

For all of you folks who have been asking me for the past week or so about my Navarathri Kolu – Thank you for the encouragement.

This year my Kolu grew by 2 steps, we had 5 steps in all. One was allocated to my daughter for her to keep her toys. That way she got a little involved in it, and did’nt really care about interfering with the remaining 4 steps that had the official kolu.

I didn’t send an evite this time. Instead I sent this word document as an attachment.

Invitation

Then we got down to building the steps. We used up our dining table, coffee table, and every book of reasonable size to build it. It is interesting to see how creative we get when we are forced to make 5 steps out of nothing. I also used up one saree and four of my f-i-l’s dhothis. In hindsight, I would have ironed them before putting them on. Step 1 was Dasavatharam, with a MahaVishu in between. The Mahavishnu was our new addition of the year, bought at the Aurora temple for $40. Step 2 was an assortment of all Gods that I had. Step 3 was miscellaneous dolls + my african animals. I tried to grow some vegetation for them, but I guess I overestimated the rate at which they actually sprout. So, they had to make do without any. Step 4 was Winter. I had a christmas town, and an assortment of snowglobes and other winter specific stuff. Step 5 was my daughter’s and she had a bunch of stuffed toys on them.

Kolu

Yesterday, we had about 35 people over for Kolu (the 10 others either dropped out or re-scheduled). In usual Indian style, almost everyone who was supposed to come between 4 and 8 arrived at 7:30 p.m. So, the house was full with no place to even sit down for some.

I made the usual Channa sundal and Somasi (which is a semi-circular samosa) served with Ketchup. I decided not to spend too much time and effort on Gulab Jamun – instead I took Maami’s idea and made Badam milk. All of them turned out very well. The Somasis were worth the effort because everyone was very appreciative of it.

Navarathri Snacks

Goody bags consisted of a jewellery box, bangalore style decorative manjal kumkumam, paaku and an apple. No vethalai here – way too expensive and no use.

Goody Bags

In all, though Navarathri is not yet done, for all practical purposes it is, because almost everyone who was supposed to visit has already visited. In the process, I discovered the joy of being a mother of a daughter. For the first time, yesterday she was so excited about getting dressed up. She wore her pattu pavadai and all her jewellery and called it her “ballerina” dress, and was showing it off to everyone. That was fun. Made me wonder for the nth time, how boring it must be to have a son.

So to all you folks out there – Happy Navarathri, Dussera and Durga Puja!

End of Navarathri

Yesterday was the end of yet another Navarathri. Today I packed up all the bommais in neat brown paper bags and stacked them up in a cardboard carton to be stored away for a year. I was glad to reclaim our dining table for purposes of dining at it. I am also glad there is no more sundal, no more keeping the house neat for unexpected “vethalai paakars” and no more trying to fit into old pattu podavai blouses, atleast until next year. However, I have got to say that I would miss the socializing aspect of Navarathri if we didnt go through the exercise.  My golu is poised to grow bigger next year (god willing and my daughter willing).

I am really eager to attempt something different next time. Dont ask me what – I have a year to think about it. Finished Saraswathi Poojai. We also gave our poor cars their much needed car wash and ran them over lemons. It’s a good thing Ayudha poojai does not come in winter, because I cannot imagine trying to run over lemons on snow. Next thing do is wait for Deepavali.

The Sundal effect

As Navarathri approached, the blogosphere was bombarded with Navarathri and Kolu related posts. I ran into quite a few that attacked one of my favorites – Sundal. Krish Ashok talked about a 9 day mega orgy of protein intake (also pointing to a descriptive woe of sundal consumption by ATP). I had then made up my mind on dedicating a full post to the fun and joy of consuming varieties of Sundal during Navarathri and how special it made the 9 days. However, before I could dedicate some time for that, I was myself attacked by the much described woes of sundal consumption. Duh! Who would’ve expected it – that too after a mere 3 servings of sundal.. Cha cha.. Ennakae avamaanama pochu. So that kind of killed the fun of doing the post about Sundal anyway. My first round of Kolu visitors visited last Saturday. I only tormented them slightly with one ’saltless’ serving of sundal. Hopefully the accompanying rava kesari and bonda would’ve compensated for that. The dolls pretty much occupied every available inch of kolu padi space. I am hence forced to consider 5 steps for next year. The little tornado has been under control.. so far.. (I hope I’ve not jinxed myself). The next thing to be done is to inflict ‘The Sundal Effect’ on my next round of kolu guests expected tomorrow.

The Sundal Plan

Its officially Navarathri season again, and it’s about time I start making the run for the best date and time that I should have people over. I have got to admit that even though only about 3 or 4 of my friends have their own golus, its still quite a scramble to try and fix up the right date and time so that the 3 or 4 can make it to my place. In a way it’s rather unfair on my part to expect them to show up. After all they are the ones that will have 40-50 people show up for golu and they have to travel an hour each way even to see my doorstep. Still worse is the fact, that my golu is going one level down this year – as in – I am moving my golu to the kutti room in our basement between the furnace and the treadmill. In fact, may be I should set it up on the treadmill. That will atleast give me a small use for the $700 and 5′ x 3′ floor space in our basement that it costs. I would have preferred it upstairs where there is more space and light, but with my dear little tornado zipping around the house, I dont think I will have much of a golu left 10 mins after I set it up. So off I go, to get started preparing for the pre-golu preparations.. Ciao