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A numbers Kolu
They are thrilled that this is the golden jubilee of Kolu in their house. You see, their late parents, Sumukhi and Rajasekharan, got married in 1952 and this is the 50th year of their wedding anniversary. Since their mother began celebrating Navarathri from the same year, this makes it the golden jubilee of the festival also. Oh! The other number connection is that the theme for this year (they always have a theme) http://www.chennaionline.com/festivalsnreligion/Festivals/navarathri/prizedkolu.asp is 'Dasa Thatvas', the magic of numbers 1-10 in religion and our everyday lives.
The family prepared a list of what they wanted depicted for the numbers. Check this out: No 1: Vinayaka who represents Omkara, and stories associated with Him; Raman's Oru Sol, Oru Vil and Oru Il (with a host of dolls depicting various facets of Ramayanam); Ardhanari, Advaita…
No 3: Three Sangams and their chiefs; Muthamizh; Moovendar; Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati; the three lokas; three gunas; Indian Tricolour; Brahma, Vishnu and Siva; Triveni Sangamam; three avatars of Sai Baba (in the form of a printout); raga, bhava, tala (real musical instruments)…
No 5: Panchamukha Anjaneyar; Pancha Anjaneyar, Panchakshara Mantra (with great sound effect); Panchamukha Gayathri; panchalokam; Pancha Ganeshas; pancha vadhyas; Panchabhoota Sthalas: Tiruvannamalai, Kalahasthi, Kancheepuram, Chidambaram and Tiruvanaikka (the depiction could beat any sound and light show)…
No 7: Saptasvaras; Eerezhu padhinaru logangal, Sapta Rishis (depicted as stars), Sapta Siranjeevis (represented as flowers); Sapta Lingams in the Mylapore area… No 8: Using Krishna idols to depict the importance of Ashtami thithi; His being the eighth child; Ashta Durga, Ashta Saraswati and Ashta Lakshmi; Ashtadiks represented by eight elephants carrying a globe; Krishna's ashta vivahams (eight types of marriage)…
No 10: Ravanan and his ten heads; Dasavatharam; the 10 fields in which Thanjavur excels; Dasami and aksharabyasam… The family has given expression to these ideas with dolls, pictures, charts, models (the Tiruvannamalai model was the show-stealer) and even printouts.
But the siblings make it a point to be free during Navarathri to conduct all their guests through the three rooms and explain all the features.
It has always been open house during Navarathri. This time, the trio placed an announcement in the Mylapore Times, their local community paper, inviting people for Navarthri. The show goes on well beyond Vijayadasami. http://www.chennaionline.com/cityfeature/extendednavarathri.asp So, everyone's invited. Even now. S Chitra Feel free to drop in at:
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Copyright
2008, Chennai Interactive
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This Navarathri is all about numbers for the family of the three siblings, S Amarnath, S Surendar and S Aparna, of Mandavelipakkam, Chennai.
The numbers are represented by dolls in their huge collection that is spread out in three rooms starting with the verandah.
No 2: Ardhanari again; Hariharan; male/female as depicted on two sides of the same doll; two great devotees of Krishna: Meera and Andal; two great pilgrim centres: Kasi and Rameswaram; two epics: Ramayanam and Mahabharatam; Siva and Parvathi; the two faces of Agni, Dvaita; two elephants depicting Vadakalai and
Thenkalai…
No 4: The four worlds: Kailasam, Vaikuntam, Sathyalokam and Bhoolokam; the Nalvar of Saivism; the four Sankara mutts; the four major religions, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism; the Thanjavur quartet; the four brothers of Ramayanam; the four Varnas; the four mada veedhis of a temple; the four margas to reach God…
No 6: Arupadaiveedu that was made part of the malai (mountain) section; the six Karthigai Pengal with six Murugan babies; Arumugam; arusuvai; Shanmadham; aru kala pooja in temples…
No 9: Navami; navaratnas (only they were wearing it on their fingers!); navadhanyam; Navagrahas; Nava Bhaktis;
navarasas…
It took them a month to arrange the Kolu in spite of their years of training in the Kalakshetra and Surendar's artistic temperament. Amarnath is a college lecturer, Surendar freelances for ad companies and also teaches and studies at the Government College of Arts and Crafts and Aparna, who is a CA, works for a finance company.
In addition to setting up a unique Kolu, they also did something extraordinary: they invited children from the local slum,
