NAVARATRI

Navaratri is a very important Hindu festival. “Navaratri” literally means nine nights. It is a festival which is for worship of “Durga” or “Shakthi” over nine nights and on the tenth day we celebrate “Vijayadasami”. It is also known as “Dasshera” and is celebrated in a very grand scale in places like Mysore and Kolkatta.

In the olden days children used to be sent to school for the first time in their life on the “Vijayadasami” day. It is the most auspicious day to start the academic pursuit in ones lifetime.

Navaratri is celebrated all over India and in Chennai we call it as “Navaratri Kolu”. Depending on the space available and no of dolls available people arrange the dolls and other attractive decorative items in the house. There should be 3 or 5 or 7 or 9 levels in which the dolls are arranged. The number of steps or levels should be only in odd numbers. On the side of the steps people do garden, water fall and other decorative things. In some houses in those days one room will be dedicated for arrangement of the “Kolu”.

Each night they would make different “sundal” and we all used to go to each and every house in Triplicane in those days and ask for “sundal”. “Sundal” is a special dish made out of White chickpeas, black chickpeas ( generally termed as Kadalai Sundal ), butter beans (termed as "Mochakottai sundal" ), dried peas (termed as Pattani sundal ) and many more. The entire evening used to be spent in going around visiting various houses to see the “Kolu” and to take the “sundal”. We used to stand at the door and shout “maami ungaathula Kolu vundo”. It was great fun.

At home in those days my father used to take special care and attention in arranging the Kolu and decorating the steps. We used to store all the dolls (neatly packed) with the decorative pillars and steps in the loft. Me, my sister and two brothers used to assist our father for arrangement of the Kolu. It used to take two full days for us to complete the arrangement.

It is a very grand festival for ladies and girls. They get to visit various houses during the nine nights. They would glitter in the best of saris and Jewellery. They also sing devotional songs when they visit the “Kolu”. It is a great tradition of community living and togetherness. It is the longest festival in the Hindu tradition and is hence the most enjoyable period of the year.

With the advent of apartments and the space inroads made by various gadgets like Television, Washing Machine, etc. people started facing acute space constraints and slowly the tradition of having “Kolu” at every house diminished during the last couple of decades of the previous century.

Over the last few years there has been an increasing number of houses which have gone back to the arrangement of Kolu at home. Since there are more number of femal workers in Banks and other organisations there is also a new trend of having Navaratri Celebration at business establishments including banks. I remember in 2008 the Mylapore Branch of Indian Overseas Bank had Navaratri Kolu and they invited the legendary singer Smt.P.Suseela to light the “Kuthuvilakku”.

These festivals remind us of the importance of community living which highlights togetherness and sharing the joy and enjoyment. I am glad and delighted that more and more houses have started again the tradition of celebrating Navaratri with “Kolu”. The arrangement of “Kolu” is catching up well and is spreading across the entire globe as we now have Indians (particularly) Hindus living in almost all the parts of the world.

-T.P.Anand, Dubai, U.A.E.
28th September 2011