Golu contest 2010

As always, Navarathri dawned in our house yesterday with the usual excitement and happiness that it brings every year to our family!
This year's golu is very special and thematic with our "Krishnarin Leelaigal" and "Navarathiriyil poojai" set. The speciality of these sets are that most of the idols used for these sets are either handmade or American dolls dressed up as our traditional mythological characters! These sets are not the ready-made sets that are available at the stores in India. So a lot of care and thought has gone into preparing these sets with some hardwork in the past two weeks.
The "Krishnarin Leelaigal" set consists of 10 Leelas of Lord Krishna depicting scenes starting from his birth. The first picture shows Vasudeva carrying baby Krishna across river Yamuna, Krishna's cradle ceremony celebrated in Gokulam, Baby Krishna being fed by demoness Putana, Krishna stealing butter, Krishna tied to the ural breaking the Ashoka trees,Yashoda feeding butter to Krishna, Krishna showing the universe to Mother Yashoda after eating mud, Krishna dancing with Gopikas, Krishna-Rukmini Kalyanam and last but not the least Krishna saving Draupadi from Vastraharan.

The "Navarathiriyil Poojai" set consists of handmade Durga and Saraswathi figurines built on two Kuthuvilakkus and adorned with jewellery and other accssories.The Mahalakshmi with Kalasam in the centre given by my maternal grandmother takes a special place in our golu and in our hearts. The women sitting below the pedestal are performing pooja to the 3 divine deities revered during Navarathiri - Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi.

Besides the 7-step Golu which has been carefully articulated not to replicate our prior years golus, we have a modern Chettiyar and Chettichi this year who have shown all their collections from their World tour 2010. So from their usual, arisi, paruppu business they might soon open a shop with souvenirs from across the world !! We also have a hand made Rangoli depicting a peacock made out of sand available here in the US.