Yes, every year during Golu season Daddy Narayanan organizes what is called the Portrait festival where the two girls have to pose for portraits after their dress up routine.
This years Portraits below..
Next year we have to custom stitch stuff for Jr. She has outgrown readymade Paavaadai sizes as of this year!
That means yours truly is growing old and needs new camera equipment to cheer him up! Certain fokls who are traveling in India right now need to make note of above statement...
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!
Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.