Well, it was Navarathiri eve; I was supposed to get the kolu box from the loft, unpack the things, help the women-folk at home in making the kolu padis and set things up. As usual I made a quite escape out and found myself amidst the Navarathiri activities in North Mada Street in Mylapore. Apart from the dolls, the first thing that comes to my mind is the sundal when I think of Navarathiri.

Talking about sundal, one is reminded of Marina Beach & Navarathiri. The cuisine of Marina, temporarily moves inland for nine days during Navarathiri. If it is 'Tengai Maangai Pattani Sundal' at the Marina, it is sundal of different types for each of the nine evenings at home. Apart from the familiar kothukadalai, pattani and their siblings the lesser known ones like kadalai paruppu, payatham payiru sundals make their appearance. Navarathiri is something special amongst all other festivals, simply because it is extended for quite some time and not a one day/two day affair as it is normally. Then there is a dash of music, culinary specialities and the grandest of all - the dolls. The best part of sundal socialising, is the relatives, friends and neighbours visiting each other over a cup of sundal, indulging in 'Arattai Kutcheri' typical of the mamis!

Navarathiri Kolu started in our house when I was in high school. As a starter's pack we got quite a few dolls from my periamma's house. These dolls were made by my athai kollupatti (Great Grand Aunt) and passed on to my periamma. These dolls, I was told, were made using clay, a paste made out of tamarind seeds and vegetable varnishes. The pack consisted of vegetables and fruits and a vastrabaharanam scene featuring Krishna, with a big pond, some gopikas and the lord himself. It was in very good condition, considering that in 1990 when it all started the dolls were already half a century old and had passed several hands on their way from a village in Salem to Madras. It featured in our kolu for the next few years.

Then we added to our stocks with purchases from Usman Road near the Pillayar Koil and the vastrabaharanam scene became the main component of the park. So it started with 3 steps and then became 5 steps. Be it organising the dolls, the park or the steps itself demanded a lot of ingenuity. The steps were constructed with benches, stools, old newspapers, wooden 'palagais', and heavy-weight books made up for any gaps in between and to this day it remains so. It continues the same way, even though we keep planning about getting the two-in-one-almirah-cum kolu stand.

I think the best time to enjoy Navarathiri is when one is a kid. And if the school holidays coincide with Navarathiri, nothing like it! While the "elders" take care of the main steps the kids can show all their creativity and talent in the theme parks, from Jurassic Park to Panagal Park to Twin Towers. The younger ones can get decked up in the "traditional" fancy dresses as Aandal, Krishna and go around inviting with the trademark "Engaathukku Golukku Vaango". Before they have a share of the sundal, in that house, there will be a customary request..."Oru paattu paaden.." to a more stringent "Paattu Paadina Sundal Kedaikkum". So finally out of no choice, everyone who is a kolu visitor has to have a go at this singing episode. If the kid sings well and gets a nod from the discerning mamis of the house, then the familiar question follows - 'Kuzhandai azhaga padardhe, yaar kitta paatu kathukara?"

Going back to North Mada street, it was submerged in a deluge of dolls of all hues, probably a few thousands of them, and if it were to be renamed one day, Bommaikkaran Street would be an apt name. I think it is here where the arrival of Navarathiri is first heralded. Some three weeks before Navarathiri the dolls start coming in and of course peak during the season. In most of the shops, in the street, the doll sellers have stacked up the dolls in the steps of the shops providing space just enough for two people to move about. But the shopkeepers do not seem to be complaining! Is this tolerance at its highest level?

Apart from these road-side vendors, the doll market is serviced by the khadi clan of institutions. And they host the biggest displays at Kuralagam in Broadway and at Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan and Poompuhar in Mount Road. These full-blown commercial areas, at the outset seem the most unlikeliest of places to host one. I suppose the best place for a doll market is the neighbourhood market where people can buy dolls during an evening walk. In any case these institutions are seeing pretty good sales increasing every year, running into some millions of rupees! While these are going strong the once big market of dolls in Usman Road seems to have faded away!

When one visits these exhibitions, one can see newer and newer themes coming up. We have the 'all Pillayar' cricket team, music orchestra, carnatic kutcheri, temple chariot festival, Thiruvannamalai Girivalam, oonjal ceremony during a marriage, instances from the puranas and epics like that of Manu Needhi Chozan...and the list goes on - made from paper mache, clay+cement and so on! For most, while the appetite for new dolls seems to be insatiable, I suppose finding a place for the new ones in the steps would be a tough task, the old heritage ones cannot go out either...then enlarging the padis is the only answer. And with the ever increasing NRI population the new generation dolls also find their way in, while the likes of marapachi bommais are on their way out!

In spite of the fast metro life, the ever increasing migration to USA, increase in number of DINK families (Dual Income No Kitchen), smaller houses (and hearts?) and marked reduction in sundal socialising, the kolu tradition seems to be going on! Well if not with the same flourish seen some years back, it still survives. So the show continues!

SRV Subrahmaniam