Navaratri Golu Contest - 2011

This is a simple golu arranged in my house. This is not a readymade stand, I organised these steps to give a uniform look. Please let us know ur comments

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a happy navarathri. This year's Golu consists of a rendition of the famous Golden Temple in Sripuram, Vellore complete with the Sri Chakra path way. The temple is surrounded by greenery complete with devotees praying and singing all along the star shaped path way. The complete temple has been made with recycled materials. In addition to it, the main golu consists of 7 steps. There are also two life size versions of Goddess Durga and Mahishasura Mardhini made with thermocole.

Ours is the 13th year of Golu, with 11 main steps, and 5 semi circular steps on either side, making it to a total of 21 steps. This arrangement besides being noval, also serves as a space server. The Golu Pommai consists of traditional dolls, right from dasavatharam to Geethopadesam, to manu nidhi Cholan to kannapiran, to ramayana set, adhi shankara with his disciples and many others. The PanchaMugha Anchaneya and Pillayar is the center piece of attraction, and Pillayars in every step is another attraction. Special lighting effects by LED lighting enhanced the look and enjoyed bye everybody.

Hi All, I am uploading the snaps of my recent golu. The theme for this year was Tirupathi brahmotsavam. Please see them and give your valuable feedback.

hello all, usually i create a small jungle for my golu but this yr i wanted to make a science town with my skool projects ,,,i prepared some models for d topic HOW TO OVERCOME POWER CRISIS,,,,, and those models were also fixed in my town,, u could see a windmill, solar panel, a small fountain showing how to generate hydro electricity(all made by me) also my town includes a signal post, a busy road, a temple with a metal detector(made by me)etc, u can see some houses with a small farm beside the other picture has some scenes from krishna leela,vinayagar gurukulam,, world cup cricket etc the most highlight of my golu is d day when rajamuthu mam(senior principal)jeya mam (principal)vidhya mam (class teacher) and few other teachers visited my house and praised me a lot,,,,,, how is it?

this is the second year of golu at my place....out of the two images one image is of the full decoration we did with lights etc...the other image is of only the bomais placed in 5 padis....!!!!

hai frnz, welcome to my golu,, this yr we have extended d steps a little bit horizontally and bought some spl collections like vaasthulakshmi, pandurangan, giri valam ,kaarthigai pengal etc a mountain was alo created with kailash extending with sabaramalai, palani, thirupati etc,, i added d marapachis as a tribal king and queen beside d mountain,, below we have d meenakshi temple madurai with golden lotus tank, vibhudhi vinayagar, pradosham, thanga ratham, lemon diyas for durgai etc surrounded by a green park and an outside procession of d chithra festival around d temple, the altar in d rt side is completely stitched and decorated by me, it was nice with my frnz, relatives and neighbours in all 9eves welcoming them with sundals or pongal with a thamboolam,, contests were also conducted all 9 days for d kids in d neighbourhood, we had a grand gala time ,hope u all like it ,, ur comments pls

Here are my two pics of Dasara 2011 at our home in USA. This is the first time ever I am sharing pics with folks outside of my family. Hope you like them. PS: I wish we could upload at least 3-4 pics :)

hai, All of us are god's children.Kolu makes us go once again to our childhood and worship God together, forgetting all our ill feelings and pray to God with an innocent heart.

my golu is arranged in 7 steps. first step consisted Goddess Saraswathi, Rishabs and Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi in two different ways. The second step is Ashtalakshmi set. The third step is Lord Ayyappa and Mahavishnu idols and fourth step consisted Dashavatharam set. the fifth step is arranged by set of different Krishna's idol and Ganapathy. The sixxth step is Meenakshi-sundareshwar kalyana set. The last step is arranged with "Vilakku pooja set". There is also two more sets which is arranged in floor as a Village. in village one kalyana mandapam is decorated and " kalyana set " is placed there. And one temple is made by cardboard and "sathyanarayana pooja set" is placed. apart from that pond, roads, houses , trees, etc. are also made in village. please reply me with your views and suggestions

This is a picture of my 5 step golu with a painted rangoli as a backdrop. The rangoli you see on the 5th step covered with a pink cloth is made on a glitter cardstock using fabric glitter. The other decorations done with grains and pulses are my past artwork which has been put for display.

This year's Golu's was theme based, it contained the golu padis of 5 steps, a small construct depicting the origins of Karthikeya, "Saravana Poigayi", and a construct that consisted of a mini waterfall, a radha krishna on jhula and a garba dandiya couple complete with lights and a daily thali starting with vrindavan thali and so on.

Hi All. Trust you all had a great Navarathri. Enclosing a picture of Kalasha alankaram done for Navarthi this year. Have dressed the Kalasham like Andal. Could not get to keep the complete Kolu this year due to certain unavoidable circumstances. So have just placed the Kalasham and marapachi dolls.Your valuable comments plz.

Dear all, This year we have displayed several Themes apart from the Traditional Step Golu & the Golu is spread over 2 spacious rooms in 2 floors at our residence. THEMES DISPLAYED: 1) 64 ARTS/KALAIGAL : Lord Krishna learnt 64 Arts from Sandeepani Muni & we have displayed the 64 Art forms ( which was prevalent during those days) with lots of hand decorated / made dolls & articles prepared at home. 2) 16 SELVANGAL We have displayed the 16 Selvamgal -"PATHINARUM PETRU PERU VAZHVU VAZHGA" with customized dolls & the meaning of each SELVAM is depicted in our Golu. 3) 5 THINAIGAL Sangam Landscape/Geography was categorized as Kurinji,Mullai,Marutham,Neythal,Palai & we have shown the Landscape,God worshipped during those days,People/their Occupation & the animals in those regions. 4) KOVIL & MANDAPAM DHARSHAN We printed Huge Banners for - Meenakshi Amman Temple Background to display 3 Devigal ( we made Sulam,Veenai at home & decorated the dolls,one was purchased & 2 dolls were homemade) & 1000 Khal Mandapam backdrop for Pillayar,Murugan,Sakarathazvar sannadhi .We converted a 1 feet doll( lady face –Plaster of Paris doll) into a Kovil Gurukkal ( the doll was kept on top of a empty Gas Cylinder & hands were stitched & attached mustache/beard to give it a masculine appearance!). We also have depicted Mahabalipuram /Farm House & Chettiar Super Market where he sells Vegetables,Fruits & runs a Juice Shop,Sweet Shop & Home Appliances shop with the help of his wife in the Kids Corner & Dancing Krishna Kolam. We decided the Themes in the Mid of April 2011 & we started collecting dolls,materials for making dolls depending on our requirement & printed Banners,after searching a lot in the web-for our main Themes & ceiling/wall decoration was done with colorful Thoranams,Thombai to create a Divine atmosphere in the Golu Room.The entire Golu spanning across 2 big rooms/floors was arranged with the help of my Husband-who shared the Idea for all the Themes in our Golu,he helped me completely in arranging the dolls,making the dolls,preparing materials/name boards etc etc. My Mother in Law,Mom, 80 year old Grandmother helped me in arranging the Golu,Dancing Krishna Kolam,Kasu Malai/doll decoration respectively. Special Thanks to my 3 ½ year old Daughter Srushtika without her co-operation, this would have not been possible. Thanks to IKolam for giving us this opportunity.Have attached few photos & couldn't accomodate all Photos of our Themes in our Golu. Regards, Saranya Vijay Rajan Chennai,India

Hi, I,am attaching 2 pics of my golu at my home in Newyork. It has 7 steps with dolls. I made a castle and created a Disney world parade. Also next to it is a Kalyana Mandabam with the wedding set. I decorated the Kuttuvilakku like a Devi. Hope you enjoy it. Waiting for your comments.Thanks. Anu

All Traditional Bommies in the first 7 steps. 8th step is the Chettiyars with vegetables and fruits and the 9th is the Rangoli made out of grinded rice flour.

Happy Navratri to all! I am enclosing 2 pictures one of the Kolu and the second of the park. The kolu is themed on Golden Heavens with the decor in gold colour, and all the gods and goddesses assembled there. The picture may not not throw the clarity of gold. The park is themed on a Temple procession originating from the temple AND proceeding towards the river, accompanied by the priest, the band and paraphernalia. The props for this entire park are hand made. The village beside the temple is probably not visible in the photo, as we have a limitation of two photos.

Hello all , I have attached our golu snaps :) 1st Step- Saraswathi, Annapoorani, Lakshmi along with Astalakshmi 2nd Step - Guhan with Ramar & Ramar Pattabishekam 3rd Step - dasa-avatharam 4th Step - Krishna Leela / Guruvayurappan /Meenakshi 5th Step - Jodi sets gifted for our wedding Other than that , We had a seperate collections of Lord Krishna in side of our regular Padi . A little town with parks/zoo/exhibition/hill-temple/ a small village

Small Golu at our home in New Orleans, US with Snow Village, Pooja Altar and other dolls.

'Spatha Shreyas' is the theme what we have chosen. Apart from the usual 9 Padikattu Golu, we have set up 18 different artefacts that highlights the importance of number 7. Since this being our first thematic Golu, we wanted to start it with humble prayer to Lord Ganesha. As a mark of respect we have kept 108 Ganesha Idols in an unique place - The Eeshanya Mula, of our house and also named this corner as 'Ashtotra Shatha Ganapathihi'. Lord Ganesha is Ketu's master and Ketu takes the number 7!! Incidentally, 7 is the birth number of our head of the family, thus we narrowed on the theme 'Saptha Shreyas' . Adding to the 108 Ganesha's we have shown: 7 colours of the rainbow 7 phases of the Moon 7 days of the week along with their respective planets 7 major metals 7 Indian Currency which are in circulation now (Rs. 5,10,20,50,100,500 and 1000) Saptha Chakras Sapthaswaram Sapthagiri Sapthapathi Sapthakanya 7 Sands of United Arab Emirates 7 stages of a man (according to the poet, William Shakespeare, in his poem 'Seven Ages of Man') Sapthapuri Saptharishi Saptha-Chatustaya Saptha Dweepa Saptha Thandava Saptha Lokas (heaven and hell) Sapthabadri One must note that, all these are inalienable even if we take 7 janmas! Our whole family has worked with a lot of dedication and we have learnt a lot by exploring the importance of number 7.We would love to share our 1st thematic golu with you. The best thing about our Golu is that, we have created wealth from waste and used things that are eco-friendly. Reagrds, S.Srimathi