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!

The many Paavaadais of 2012

Paavaadai is the name for the south indian frock, usually made with silk and gold embroidery and this blog has a picture of my two little darlings in their new Paavaadais almost every October festival season as they dress up and go to the Golu's of friends and relatives.

This year having been very busy at work, did not get a chance to do the pictures before or after the golus on most days. So today we had a portrait session for 45 minutes. 

Begged them to co-operate for a merge photo and they did 3 dress changes in 45 minutes and we precisely engineered the seating positions.. the first set is below.

Just getting warmed up. Will post the rest over the week. There was one overlap that cannot be overcome on this set.. will have to figure a way around that tomorrow.

A big thanks to my darlings for co-operating!

More later.

Double trouble

San is in India. The kids are bored.. we can explain.

Have been doing the dressing up the kids and taking them to visit Navrathri golu routine since Friday evening and so far we are on schedule!

There will be a post with all the Golu Photos in a gallery in a couple of days.

Yesterday while visiting a golu, the kids were asked "So how is life without Amma being around?" and the answer was very short..

"Fun!"

There was shock all around at the answer.

Then the little one went on to explain the logic. "When amma is around, she keeps giving us chores to do and keeps telling us what to do all the time. Now that she is not there, we are not all the time being told to do this and do that. So it is fun, but it is also boring! So we miss Amma"

A couple of things to learn from this :

All of San's screamings have been providing pure entertainment value for the kids. So she might as well stop.

As for me, not telling them what to do is not exactly interesting. I am boring. So it is time for me to give them chores...

This morning we had an idea to take photographs of them in their different paavadais in one shot.. They are both protesting on the value of three dress changes for a 30 minute photoshop! In the meantime, I wanted to see how the concept will work. So while they were fighting on the couch, fired a few snaps and merged them.. 

It seems to work pretty well.

Let us see if we can sit 9 people on this couch without an overlap...