Navratri time

First one here.. starting on a 'homely' note...

Nothing like being at home for navratri....
Now here comes another "I miss Home,I miss Chennai" stuff from me. When it comes to the traditional hindu festivals, banglore is extremely pathetic! At least the part of the city in which I stay is pathetic I should say.. Here comes navratri with all its festivities, grandeur and charm, ad here I am stuck, and so unfortunate of not being a part of this special festive season. Being in the "silicon valley of India" simply means that, to find out about your culture and days of religious importance, you log on to some damn website and realize that it is an auspicious day! Thats exactly what I did! Happened to log on to one of the news websites, and there the headlines scream " here comes navratri !" and a whole lot of articles about celebrations in ahmedabad! dandiya etc.. Then realization dawns! "oh my god.. its the lovely navratri time yet again! " .. Then hurriedly I call up my mom, to ask her about the nice preparations which we generally engage in, to welcome this special span of 9 days...
For an hour or two after that, I am lost in memories of all the lovely navratri celebrations which we have had back home, for the last 21 years.And that inspired me to scribble some stuff here. The way the festival is celebrated down south is totally different from the way it is done up north. lot of cutural and religious stuff of importance, learnt, which i dont have much space to elaborate on.. Well the fun stuff, of course..yes..here it comes..
No preparation starts without 'Kesavan' who is our family carpenter.. has been doing all possible wood work for our entire khandaan since ages! Kesavan takes the entire set of dismantled metal fixtures from the attic in our house, which had been kept there after the previous year's celebration. Then he places the metal plates(huge ones) in the actual order, with beams and other supports and fixes the nuts and bolts in an impeccable way, so that the whole structure is 'real sturdy'. For those who are wondering as to what this structure is, this basically forms broad metal steps(more or less like a staircase) on which the navratri dolls are kept. There are a lot of rules which my paati(grandma) makes, that the number of steps always have to be odd etc.And it is generally 5 steps at our place. Then a nice long white cloth is placed on top of the steps so as to cover the metal. Sush(my younger sis) and me then start decorating the steps with all those glittery things. Those decoration stuff is given due importance every year by both of us, and we ensure we do a good job! And its really strange that, it is 'one' thing sush and me suprisingly agree on.. :) Then the traditional "golu petti" (box containing the dolls) is brought down from the attic! Every time, after a year, we look at those dolls, they seem so new and nice! After checking out the "nalla neram" (auspicious time!) n all, we finally get down to business. Instructions from my paatti and amma, which have become a part of us nowadays, that the ganapathy idol goes first, right in the middle on the top most step, with goddess laksmi and sarawathi on either side. Then all the other dolls take their own places, with occasional rearrangement suggested by one of us. There are some real interesting sets of dolls which will be a part of every navaratri household, like dasavadharam (depicting the 10 avatars off lord vishnu), "Chettiyar chettichi" with a huge provision store in front of them, ashtalakshmi etc.. Aling with the traditional golu steps, comes with it an accessory called the "park"! god knows who started this concept, but its been major fun working on it.. sush and me try hard and get some good soil which can promote plant growth :) then we put scatter some mustard and other seeds, and dutifully sprinkle some water on it every morning.. first job in the morning wud be to check out how much its has grown! then ofcourse, build our own zoo, placing animals dolls in between the grass , make a tiny artificial pool where we drop some plastic fishes etc... then we place some benches for ppl who visit the zoo to realx and innumerable number of such things! And sometimes, its a cricket stadium with a match going on...I have exculsive control over the scoreboard... its always..India vs Pak match with Afridi scoring a century :) but india in a extremely comfortable winning position... All this park n cricket stuff within 5X4 square feet!!! And clear instructions from amma that cleaning up all that mess is strictly our responsibility!
Then comes the interesting part, visiting neighbours and inviting them home to take "vethala paakku sundal" (prashad..u can say) The whole locality buzzes with activity! What a sight it used to be! And whenever we go to another house to invite them wearing our "pattu paavadais" (long skirts and blouse made from silk), they inturn give us their 'sundal' for the day, and thus a number of visits per day, will make u carry a bag full of wide variety of sundals! But nothing comes without a price u see! Since most of them know that my sis and me learn music, we had to sing a song for their "golu" before we run off from their place. Thus ended up singing one song, and some times due to popular requests, two, at every house!! :) The different varieties of sundals made at home is devoured with a lot of enthusiasm by sush and me, my favourite being the 'kadalai sundal' :) and poor appa when he gets back from office, hez not even left with a bit of it to taste, unless amma had saved some for him, before showing the rest of it to us.. ;p.. The weekend during navratri is strictly for visiting relatives! Saraswathi pooja is one day, when you can royally be excused from studying, as all the books are kept at the goddess' feet for the puja! And after the pooja is over, one full hour(sometimes extends to a little more..) of saraswathi vandana, by me sometimes joined by my sis.. with appa, amma and paatti listening to us! Me finishing off, praying that goddess saraswathi shouldnt run off, on hearing my extended vandana, and stay atleast a stone's throw away , if not in my study room ;p
All this fun during school days!! when in college, the same fun stuff continues, but just that, the number of visits is restricted to relatives,friends houses and immediate neighbours and not to anyone and everyone in the locality... And the during my PG days...state of affairs is such that i logon to times of india website to find out about navratri ! Hope this situation changes!! God ...have some pity! :(