If you read my blog or see my posts regularly, you know that this blog has documented every bay area golu we visit during Navarathri for what.. 15 years running?!
This year, I did not get invited to any Golus. San did.. as it was a ladies only timed event at most houses to avoid people from different social bubbles interacting.
Save for my next door neighbor, I did not get to do the usual golugraphy. It is also a passion of mine to capture any new dolls in the display or anything unique year on year that folks come up with.
The only golu from this year..
The new doll this year that captured our attention ..
we did do the Saraswati poojai at home ..
San took this photo of me to send to my mom.. one of her best clicks in recent times..
This year given we dont get a chance to wear new clothes.. that is an understatement.. have not even worn formal pants for more than a few hours since March! It has been T-shirts and track suits and sitting and attending meetings or doing yoga on the same mat all day..
So every festival gets a new shirt.. this one was purchased last December during the India trip.
The little one gets the photo credit. San is her usual lovely self and puts my age in perspective and stark contrast just within the 2020 photo sets..
Last year I decided to match shirt colors with San's saree color and went around for Golus.. this year has been different.. of the 9 days, she dressed up only on 4 and went to select friends houses with fixed time slots.
Navarathri has understandably been a muted affair for 2020. It was my sincere prayer to the godess of learning that folks learn that wearing a mask and social distancing and washing their hands can save lives and the lives of people who are elderly, have other health conditions are as valuable as their own!
No one needs to die because someone decides to be irresponsible.. the whole "in pursuit of my own happiness at all costs" attitude has a fundamental flaw that is glaringly obvious, thanks to a small virus!
This last year has been good for learning.. hope the coming year brings more knowledge to me and everyone around me.
Wishing everyone a happy Dushera/Navarathri/Durga pooja/Saraswati pooja/Vijayadasami/ Ayuda pooja.. and whatever other name you celebrate this festival by..
This year Navarathri came and went. . . and it took me a good 10 days to come up with this post.
It was another hectic 9 nights with only one weekend in the middle and that meant going and visiting friends across the bay area between Friday night and Sunday night.
At least I am here for this was the thought and don't have to travel. Then came Jr.'s marching band competitions and the picking up and dropping off for that meant I got to visit even less folks than usual.
Did not do the saraswathi pooja and Vijayadasami prayer this year. San's chinna paati passed away. The golu we usually attend at MIL's cousins place was always one of the grandest. Almost every large scale display of dolls reminded me of her and conversations with her. Just did not feel like doing any pooja this year.
Did go see some Golu(Kolu's) with San, and took pictures. This year, wanted to take photos of unique dolls in the displays that were not seen in other displays. It was a larger list and eventually a lot of the redundants were taken off the list.
Some of these are tiny dolls that are only a few inches tall but have some amazing detail..
Here are a few of my favorites..
The full displays and the other unique pics are in the slideshows below..
Also learned of the new and improved Snapseed App (thanks to Raja Ramki) and played with some of the pictures with that app. It was how I spent time while waiting at airport gates last week. Given all the photos were taken on the iPhone X, made it easy..
Another year has come and gone. The kids showed a lot less interest in visiting folks this year than previous years.
Next year I hope the festival falls over two weekends and there are less conflicts!
We are currently celebrating Navarathri (nine-nights) and the Golu visits that come with the celebration.
The women and girls (and their drivers by induction) are dressed nicely.
There is high octane fuel.. err Sundal to feed the traveling beauties and chaufers..
Some fine singing by the kids in front of the doll displays and
the doll displays themselves.. a thing we look forward to in this household.
For those of you who are new to this blog, here is the background. South Indians celebrate Navarathri (Dushera, Durga Pooja in other parts of India) with elaborate doll displays on a staircase pattern (padi) and make some yummy treats with various legumes on 9 nights of the festival. They invite ladies and kids to visit their house, they sing in front of the deities, eat the snacks and are off to visit other folks. The ninth day is a prayer to the godess of learning, Saraswathi and the tenth day is celebrated as the day of Victory (Vijaya- Dasami).
In most houses where there has been a death in the family that year, they skip the display in their house and visit other folks. In some rare cases, where families found that the first year they kept the display as a newly wed family correlated to a death of a closed one, and I use the term correlate with a lot of hate given my applied math background... they watch cautiously.
My grandmother apparently lost three kids to three years when she tried to keep the golu and decided that keeping the golu was not auspicious for the family. Since then (60 odd years ago), there has been no golu in this house on any paternal desencents. Any woman who gets married to a guy in this family, is promptly brainwashed irrespective of her education level and is told "not to tempt fate by keeping a golu".
Let's just say that everytime I piss a flamingo dies. Unfotunately piss I have to. Out of respect for my elders (let's call it that) I am just happy visiting golus and taking photos of my cuties in different dresses. . . and of course documenting the golus from bay area which are frozen in time.. the Golus in Chennai seem to have morphed into some advanced concepts in terms of themes, dolls and partying!
This is typical of any immigrant community that evolves on one side and supresses evolution on other fronts to keep things "authentic"..
This year we managed one family portrait..
and visited 10 or so Golus over the weekend. I will miss the rest of the golus because of work. It is what it is.. Have asked Jr. to take some nice pictures of golus they attend and show me and I can add it to the slideshow below..
This year I also got to take pictures of the Dasavatharam set (10 avatars of Vishnu) from different Golus (where it was possible to take a picture). Given the circular golus and a shallow depth of focus, some golus were a challenge to capture.. next thing I know, we might need drones to take ariel views of the golu and add videos. Golugraphy has to make its technological advances, no?!
Talking of technology, the kids are taking their science projects and making the Golus interesting. We were witness to a volcano demonstration as part of a golu. Every visitor gets to see the volcano. Just think of how much fun Golus are becoming!
Here they are...
Given that kids place the dolls and there is sometimes breakage in transit, it is impressive that the golus make it with all 10 avatars. Sometimes folks place it in the wrong sequence while majority place it right. Have written about this in a FB post before.. but there is a logic to this. My grandpa taught me that the 10 avatars of Vishnu is our forefathers way of teaching us evolution. The puranas that talk about the 10 avatars pre-date Darwin by 100's of years.
The idea is :
life started in the ocean.. the first avatar is fish
Life moved to amphibians .. second one is a tortoise
Then it came to be ground feeding land animals .. third one is a boar
Then came a predator .. Vishnu as a Lion
Then came a pygmy or dwarf .. Vamana
Then it is all homo sapien transformations with a man who is mentally unstable (but physically a man as we know it) - parashurama (violent man)
followed by Rama - man with ideals
then Balarama -- a man with a plough (he has now settled and has figured out how to tame rivers and do agriculture.. non nomadic man)
then Krishna (god who does anything he has to to win and in the process sets up the downfall of man)
Finally Kalki, the doomsday avatar of Vishnu who finishes off what Krishna started. (Last year I had made fun by saying Trump is Kalki and regret that.. he won as I predicted and given where we are.. he might actually be the 10th avatar of Vishnu.. given God comes in all shapes, sizes and colors..even orange)
It is interesting to see how sometimes we miss the bigger picture or the hidden lessons!
Wishing one and all a very happy Navarathri Golu season, Dushera, whatever other name the next ten days go by...
Golus from Bay area friends have made it to this blog for years now. This years photos do not do justice to the magnificent displays. Most of the pics were taken on the iphone instead of the canon (it will be obvious from the photos). Here are the pics from the golus we saw this weekend...
More Golu photos next week. The kids had a great time this weekend, singing, collecting eats, meeting friends, etc..
Sunday, October 25, 2020 at 8:26PM ;)
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