Navarathri 2012 and the grand Golu's

This year we had a very different Navarathri (Navrathri) Golu festival. 

We did not invite anyone to our house because San went to India as soon as the festival began and we had to manage with Daddy's ability to dress the kids up and visit all golu's because they refuse to be dressed up by my mom. 

Given those limitations, did the best I could and if you think their hair could have been combed better or there could have been better necklaces or bangles, yes.. yes.. wholeheartedly agree!

That said, the whirlwind visits to a dozen places in a span of three days was a little too much for me to handle!

Did take photographs of almost all golus except Suja's (sorry!) and put them in a landscape gallery  and  a portrait gallery. So please check out the pictures! It is amazing to see that the golus in the bay area are getting grander and bigger every year. 

Seriously!

Last year I missed the golus because of the hand surgery to remove plate and screws just a day before Golu season started. More than made up for it this year!

You can check out previous golugraphy's for :

2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, ....

The three step ones have become 5 steps and the 5 have become seven and the grandest one went from 7 steps with a width of 5 feet to almost 10 feet! Truly amazing!

Some of the displays created by the kids were really cute and imaginative.. like this cow about to be captured by velociraptors ala jurassic park style in a field of methi grass..

or Vedhaville (my favorite).. why not name a ville after yourself and make it rhyme with your name?

and a hand made set done by a 9 year old..

with a rangoli to go with it! 

It was truly an experience having Jr. sing at most of the Golus and get some really tasty treats for all of us! 

It was also an eye opening experience for my parents to see that culture and tradition are alive and well and realize that just because we celebrate Halloween with great pomp, it does not mean we give up the Navarathri celebrations.

They probably saw what their grand daughters are missing, but still insist on not starting a doll display in our house because of some old ill omen stuff. For the sake of not upseting the kids, we steered the conversation away from that topic. 

We had a great time, not to mention the mege photo session that we had on Sunday!

Indian festivals are a ton of fun. Nothing is less than a day and this one spans 9 days.. so go figure!

Lamphead

Manual mode shot of a swan on top of a traditional Indian lamp in a Navrathri golu..

Tonemapped and noise reduced with Photomatix trial software..

Had a wisdom tooth infection that prompted a short notice surgery and extraction of both lower wisdom teeth. Recovering nicely so far. Have been forced into a "silent" fast (mouna vrath)for the last three days. Looking forward to a nice meal today.

The golu trips continued with San, MIL and kids attending some golus during the week. Tonight we will round up the rest of the golus and post pictures.

Until then..

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Golus are the perfect subject for HDR

See this one below!

Note, if you take a picture with a flash and capture this really good golu with a wide angle set to 18mm, you will not get the details in the shadows. You can even see the shadows of the beads in each step with the HDR image..

Loving it so far..

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Navaraathiri . . . thookam Yedhu.. ohhh

If you have not seen the Kamal movie MMKR, the title won't make sense to you. My apologies.

The last week was hectic with San being out of town till Thursday. Let us say that I pretty much went into survival mode as Daddy trying to juggle work and the kids.

When it was time for a much needed rest, there come the Navarathri celebrations and they started Friday.

So the afternoon nap still eludes me.. but this year thanks to the nice lenses taking photographs of Golus(doll displays) is a lot more fun!

This is a photograph of a lamp shot with the macro.

So far we have seen nine golus over friday evening to sunday evening. Have another 6 more to visit for sure between now and next saturday.

The pictures of all the golus will have to wait till next weekend. For now, work calls...

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Navarathri 2009 - The rest of the golus..

Previous golu posts on this blog...

2009 : first set of golus

2008 : Part 1 (Golumania), Part 2(padis), Part 3(Megolumaniacs)

2007 : Golus and Paavaadais, more paavadais and golus..

2006 : Don't know and don't remember why we missed the golu scene in 2006.. we had just moved to Cupertino and things seem to have been normal. But no golu posts...

2005 : The first golu post when San was still very pregnant with the little one (ah, how time flies!), stitch shots of golus

Now for the last of this years photos.. (the little one deleted two of the photos on the iPhone by mistake)

That is all folks!

The Chronicles of Navrathria continue next year.

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