We do not have the concept of Golu(Kolu) in our house. My blog readers and friends know that. However we do Saraswathi pooja and celebrate Vijayadasami.
This year, we do not have any celebration as my oldest cousin (who is only 5 years younger than my dad and who is like a brother to my dad) passed away. To honor him there is no poojas this year.
We did go do the rounds to meet friends and participate in their golu's. Even got to sing in a few houses we visited. My guru had taught me enough small songs that I could sing without going into complicated territory.
Here is a slide show of the Golus
and a slide show of the unique dolls..
the ayodhya temple replica that was built with a Ram Lalla inside probably will stay in our minds for a long time .. as was a creative mom who didn't know about Chitchen Itza but managed to realized that the Muruga doll perfectly fit on a souvenir as a base! there were many other new dolls that we saw that were not seen in past years golus. they are all in this slidshow.
As is now the new tradition, managed to match San's sarees to the best of my ability, given my diverse shirt collection.
She definitely keeps going back to some of the sarees every year..and there were some very unique colors this year!
After two years, this blog is seeing an entry for Navarathri. Last year I happened to be in India for a conference and barely made it back on Saraswathi pooja. I did get to visit a few homes in Chennai last minute to see golus!
As most of you know, we do NOT have a golu (doll display) in our house. I am trying to figure out though if the higher powers (mom) would divine a way for me to start. Given the best years of our kids being kids are gone, maybe it is a moot point now. Hopefully my girls marry into homes that have golus!!
Personally I think families that have no golus because they associate the festival with some past tragedy, may not be the best families to marry into. Will definitely get flamed for this, but one has to voice his opinion when it comes to correlating deaths to not celebrating festivals. The dead are dead. Festivals are for the living! In case I do conk out on some auspicious day or festival, this blog post would hopefully remind my near and dear ones to keep celebrating! Now that the rant is over.. lets move on to positive things!
Bay area golus!!!
They are a treat, as the folks here take it very seriously and do an amazing job. The only thing that beats the doll displays and the enthusiasm of the kids to do their own little side projects is the food ! There was also some singing and instrument playing in many houses and this year I sang 4 or 5 different songs on repeat mode, thanks to whatever I have learned from my carnatic music teacher from Paadarivom Padipparivom!
A cover photo for the blog is a compilation of some of the dasavatharam sets in the golus.
Here is a slideshow of all the beautiful full golus..
Then there are the side displays which are done by the kids for the most part with some adults taking it to a different level. The one of Ramana's ashram and the Murugan atop a custom made hill were mind blowing when seen up close!
and finally, the unique dolls that caught my eye on some of the golus!
Given the number of images for the unique dolls, the slideshow sometimes does not load. You can browse through them at this link.
A lot of our friends are empty nesters now and it was nice to meet some of the kids who had driven or flown in for the weekend.
Matched San's sari color for the most part. She did have some challenging colors this year. This is now becoming a bay area trend as I see more hubbies being forced to wear matching shirts for Navarathri... Hope the men folk don't take me to some alley and beat me up for doing this every year!
Even though we have no golu, we still do Saraswathi pooja like clockwork.
This year for a change I played Vara veena on the flute to commence the "spirit of learning"
Our little saraswathi..
This year we missed our kids who are both in college, but had fun visiting friends, catching up and eating a lot. The after effects of all those good eats caught up finally today, but if history is any guide, things will be okay in a few days!
We really loved Navarathri this year!
My guru gave me a 15 minute music class on Vijayadasami and started teaching me Sree saraswathi Namosthuthe in raga Aarabi and I loved the new start for music learning!
My friend and flute teacher made me play in front of friends and family to get over my self doubt, and that was equally wonderful !
Attended one India golu virtually. That one was twice the size of the biggest one we saw locally!
Here is to Indian festivals!
It is heartening to see good traditions surviving over time!
A big heartfelt thanks to all of you who invited me along with San, encouraged me to sing and gave us all the good eats!
Last years Golu was a wash, because of COVID. It was also when I missed Jr. a lot as she was setting in college and getting busy.
This years Navarathri was better. I had just landed after a hectic last minute trip to Chennai just after Navarathri started. So it was nice to be invited to a few golus in the bay area. Most of the golus this year were ladies only events and that meant, not a lot of Golu pictures.. we even went to a drive by golu this year!
This year I tried to continue a thing I started in 2019.. trying to match wife's saree color with my shirt color. It was a challenge as my wardrobe, while colorful, is no match for her variety! Once I set this trend and make it fashionable, it will only be a question of time before Nalli and Pothy's start selling matching shirts to the sarees. You will hear this soon "idhu sari with blouse ma, idhu sari with blouse and Shirt!".. you heard that here first! just remember..
There were a lot of new dolls which was impressive given people managed to get these shipped here during COVID. We also visted a few folks for the first time and saw interesting dolls, some that date back a century and were handed over for generations!
This year, I was asked to sing in a few Golus and did that. Have only been singing movie songs recently, but decided to give it a try. Wife give me a smile and said "not bad!" which is as much of a compliment I can expect to get. Next year, will learn, practice and sing a few classical songs if everything goes well!
All that said, here are the pictures of the golus and some dolls that caught my eye..
Hopefully by next year, COVID is a thing of the past and we get to visit more golus. There are many families that have lost dears ones in the last year and that also reduces the number of golus we visit. When you hear "we lost a relative, so no golu this year in our house!" over and over again, the magnitude of COVID strikes you!
All these trips got me to feel somewhat normal again after that Chennai trip.
We did do a quick Saraswathi Poojai and Vijayadasami, given they both fell on working days and I was in meetings for the most part of those two days!
It would be a big miss if I forget to mention the food over the last week.. sundals, vadais of different types and sizes, payasams, pooris, kuzhi appams, etc. etc. either I got to eat them directly or San got me parcels from the ones she visited. Given I had lost 5 lbs over 15 days with the trip, have almost put all the weight back in one week now.
Wish the kids take more interest in dressing up and visiting golus in a few years once they are out of their busy high school/college life!
If I can try to learn carnatic music (again for the 4th time in my life) at this age, there is hope for them!
Wishing you all a wonderful year of learning ahead! May the godess Saraswathi bless you with learning everything you wish to learn and may you find the right guru to teach you!!
The last month has been busy.. the kids are both in high school, the travel, school calendars are blocked to a point of exhaustion.. Then comes Navarathri festival.
This year was a mixed bag. Could visit folks only on three days.. The rest of the days were spent in pick up and drop off duties or in meetings. Also the kids did not dress up even once and visit any Golu. That was a new low.
There were games to be played, bands to be marched in, or the self imposed ban on attending functions while on periods. In any case, someone had to step up and dress up with San.. especially after day one when I told everyone I was ready to go in my T-shirt and shorts...
There was a lot of shaming and I decided to match her Sari.. there were a lot of compliments from friends, partly because they were all so used to seeing me in the same T-shirt that anything else was a step up.
Then I decided to do it the other two days of golu hopping as well. . . the end result .. a photomerge to remember..
This year the golus saw a lot of antique dolls that were inheritences for the ladies from their grandparents.. some of them were 100 years old handed down generations.. and they are all making their way to the bay area.. Cupertino and Fremont are the New Mylapore and New Mambalam.. have said that before and will say it again!
There were also a these miniature dolls with amazing detail. None of them are more than 3-4 inches in any dimension but the intricate color work is mind boggling.
My favorite from this year..
For the first time all the photos from the Golus were taking with an iPhone 11 Pro Max.. the new phone came just in time for the Golu season and is still being figured out..
Slide shows of the golus..
now for the individual doll portraits.. at least these dolls were unique across the golus I attended this year.. the iPhone has a neat portrait feature and if the dolls are lifelike, it takes portraits and enhances them automatically.. to me that is a measure of how life like the dolls are..
and finally, the photoshop masterpiece..that made the experience a fun one!
This blog has been capturing local golus for almost 15 years now.. hope to keep doing that over the years.. it has been one constant that has held over time for this blog!
Happy Vijayadasami to everyone! May the start of this academic year be a good and fruitful one!
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!
Sunday, October 13, 2024 at 10:56AM ;)
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