Dasara is the time of the year I have always enjoyed. As a little girl, a young person and now as a lady. Though my roles in these years have drastically changed, the zeal and fervor still continues.
As a little girl I would go around with a groups of friends in the neighborhood with a small bag ( Cheela) in my hand asking the big ladies or aunties – Aunty nima mane nalli boombe itidira? (Aunty have you kept dolls for Show?) A wide smile would emerge when they would welcome us inside, not more to see the dolls, but to collect the goodies like Chakli, muruku, kodbale, shundal, gun powder , kadbu etc in boombe bagna .( goodie bag ) Again the next day we would go again to the same household to collect some more goodies. Sometimes if luck was in our favor some of the A class uncles like we called them would do a small puppet show, or switch on the battery of a talking doll etc. This ritual slowly faded with time and years, instead I started taking keen interest to help my granny/mom to set up bombe/gollu and also help them to distribute boombe bagna to little visitors visiting us. This too stopped over the years as kids got more sophisticated and stopped visiting. So we started inviting families to spend time with us and to showcase our creativity in form of doll arrangement. More so because this gave us a break from monotony of the stressed corporate life!
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| simple arrangement in my pooja room |
After being married my role evolved yet again more so to take the entire ownership for celebrations and continue the tradition so that we have something to pass to the next Gen. Every year our Gollu celebration has been quiet good and decent. This year was one of its kinds where with a little toddler who at blink of an eye would pull down the dolls .No amount of instilling fear and coaxing her not to touch them helped. With heavy heart I had to push back the huge boxes up the attic .I took a calculated risk of keeping a simple gollu/boombe in the Pooja Room. However a guilt feeling can overrule any logic, rational or emotions, even as I am writing this blog with a huge sense of guilt I wonder why I could not think of better option for celebration and display of all the boombe/ dolls.
The entire weekend was spent with this sense of guilt. My Husband Dearest ( HD) planned a great thing for me to overcome this by promising me to take me to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan( Our erstwhile college) where they celebrate dasara habba with all pomp and glory, Just to keep up the tradition of Mysore. I readily agreed and we made big, vibrant plans ensuring even the minutest details are taken care.
Dawn Sunday morning with it came the head ache pounding itself hard and wild on me. Like always I thought if I could involve myself is some work it would give me respite and finally vanish. With that the day started with Inducting a New maid giving her instruction on what to do, how I would prefer things to be done etc. I typically became of one those women in Saas Baahu soaps, while I spent most of my time in the kitchen, making breakfast for my little one and HD, Ensuring both ate right, cooking lunch, serving HD, feeding the little one, putting her to sleep, not to forget cleaning up the dishes etc… in this went my lovely Sunday noon, by the time I realized it was well past 3 pm, I decide to take a quick nap which could ease the pounding in my head. Like they say it’s the most elaborate plans that do not work and mine was no special. So with heavy heart we had to cancel the plan, again its always the guilt over logic, my heart would not accept and my head would not let that happen. So finally I decided to call an aunt of mine, who has a great passion for dasara habba and great passion for bombe/ dolls. So after popping a pill, HD and me decided to walk across to her home with our little one. I quickly called her to confirm if they were around and within 10 min we were in her house.
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| Doll arrangement in Bharathi Aunty's house |
The entry seemed dramatic but I soon realized we were actually experiencing it , experiencing it in our heart, in the space within us. The moment was so enchanting that It completely took us back in time to our child hood and put us in a toy land like they describe in fairy tales.
As we stepped inside her house HD and me first let a low whistle of “Vow” and instinctively looked at each other as though we had achieved our purpose. Aunty has done the dolls so well, I realized over our talk that the whole effort took her and advance 7 days pre preparation to set up the structure to keep the gollu/bombe.
A little elaborate brief of what we witnessed (Good Oxymoron if you failed to realize)
The whole dining area was converted into a virtual doll land, the lighting was all natural with serial set to add some color and glamour the arrangement and also give that true spirit.
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| Ramayana and Krishna Leela |
The top first 4 steps occupied the entire space where the first left half was an entire depiction of Ramayana which started with the Putrakamesthi yaga by dashratha , Rama meeting Seeta Devi, The great Wedding, 14 yrs of Vanvas (Exile), Meeting of Hanuman, Hanuman carrying the Sanjeevani, building the Setuve over the ocean ( bridge) with help of monkeys, Ravan Durbar, Great coronation of Rama ( Patabhisheka), Sending Sita to Forest and this ended with Lava and Kush challenging Rama after Ashwameda yaga.
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| Perumal, Asthalakshmi,Alwars |
Last two steps were dedicated to our very own Krishna in his Krishna leela where he is busy dancing with gopikas or trying to steal the makkan (butter) in one while in the other sequence he is busy with kalinga narthana , kamsa samhara . Must admit Krishna quiet enchanted us with one leela or the other while we tried to recollect every story we had heard.
The right side was Oopliapan , Ranga Vittal, Periya Perumal, Srinivasa & Padmavathi while the others steps were adorned with Alwars, veda gosti Astha Lakshmi , Dashawatara and the story of how Narasimha perumal emerged from a pillar for Hirnayakasha samhara and other gods all in form of dolls with a a story attached to it.
The main area depicted Tirupati Bhramotsavam with Chatri Seva , Kalyan Utsava, Garuda seva, and OOnjal Seva and our very own Mysore Dassara to complete the aisle .The lower steps were well depicted with tales from panchtantra like the Punyakoti, Thirsty Crow, Lion and Rat, Monkey and the Crocodile all this ended with something that catches fancy of every Indian, D Cricket!
The left and right sides were again very innovatively made with Wedding Ceremony, Cost cutting Samoohika maduve ( mass wedding) Our olden days school with the traditional wooden benches ( slate and balpa of course!) Independence day celebration, life in a village and the olden life style of city and country folks, Parvathi Paremshwara in Kailash , folk dance depiction, lunch during a festival etc
All in all it ended with a good note with HD and me trying to recollect all that we had seen and trying to remember the stories we had heard as kids and trying to over burden our little one with stories of all kind. I must appreciate the effort by aunty who in her simple living has ensured to pass the richness of tradition and also encourage the next generation to continue. All these festivals and celebrations do have some kind of relevance and meaning in shaping us as individuals today. I realize our traditions are rich and pure with a culture deep, but it takes effort to learn, absorb and pass this and also try and imbibe this is our day to day life.
Today when I look back, I realize how much the tradition and rituals have played an important role is shaping us a human beings. In a similar fashion it also becomes important for us to share this with our Next gen so they too imbibe good values and feel this richness and goodness of our culture and traditions.
I also feel humble about how minuscule we are in this sea of humanity while there is so much to learn and gain from every facet of life.
P.S
I presume there is enough information on I-net which can has information on the significance of navaratri /Dasara/Dusheera and hence this post does not get into those details.
