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!

Six becomes eight

If you have been following me having fun with Photoshop.. kind of reached the limit on the last two.

Redid the one with six kids.. which translates to "spent another 15 minutes on this one to perfect edges and blemishes you can catch when zoomed to the max" 

and got this one with me in it. The third set of three was unusable. There was simply not enough room in the couch to seat 9 of us!

That one kind of almost got out of hand because the white balance on the two shots got messed up. Not because of the camera setting but because the sun moved outside the window in the 30 minutes between dress up sessions. Took me a good 30 minutes to try and match colors on my face to the closest and then merge the raw images. 

Bottomline? "It is difficult but doable! and if you can spend even more time it would have been posible to match the tones on the two versions of me".

On a funny note the kids have been going through an emotional upheaval of sorts. They miss their mom but don't know how to express it..

This morning though a funny thing happened. The little one woke up and said "Daddy, I had a nightmare. Thought mommy is back already!"

Me "don't you mean a dream.. not nightmare?" 

She didn't get the difference for some reason. She breaks out into tears for no reason and slams the door in anger at her grandparents, again for no reason! Later this evening she admitted "I miss mommy!" 

A minute later she says "But... BUT, I get to sleep in your bed from the beginning.. I have been planning that since mommy told me she was going to India!"

So for now, she is happy to sleep on my arm.

We are finally done with the Navrathri rounds tonight! 

Five becomes six..

Got the hang of it now.. 

Can go to sleep now!