" Slowly... slowly.......bring it down......be careful.....don't break it.........you too give a hand......" The Navarathri celebrations in our house has started with a bang.

Come September, the men in our house start trembling thinking of the fusillade of orders shooting from the women of the house. Naturally, as the job of bringing down the dolls from the loft will fall upon them. Some will even start cursing the person who started this eventful 'Golu' celebration for ten days.

My ever cautious father will warn my mother that three steps would be enough but it would only fall on deaf ears. With a mighty sweeping statement that the function should be celebrated without any shortcomings for the sake of the family's well-being , her already planned thirteen steps ,made of wood will be enforced. She was always particular that the number of steps should be an odd number.

We used to bring down the dolls from the loft one by one with utmost care and of course fear, because of the rats which would have made their homes in the boxes with their families and would react to the disturbance with agitation. It so happened that when my elder brother was opening a box to take the dolls out, one rat fell on his hand and ran into hiding. He screamed and dropped the Chettiar doll with its ever prominent belly broke into pieces. My mother started lamenting the loss by telling that she had bought it when she visited Kancheepuram for the Garuda Sevai Utsavam.

We fixed the steps so that they were facing East and kept some timber sticks on the sides for support. Finally the 'step phase' was over.

The ladies of our house who were always reluctant to give our dhoties to be laundered and thought that it was a waste of money, would keep them pure white for using them on the Golu steps. All our white dhoties will be adorned by the steps during these ten days.

It is a tradition to keep 'Kalasam' during Navarathri and so a silver pot with mango leaves on the top and water used for the pooja inside, and over the mango leaves a coconut would be kept, all of which would then be kept on the first step of the Golu.

Lord Krishna with a flute, Lord Rama's pattabhishegam, Lord Shiva and Parvathi will take their place on the first step. On the second step Dhasavathara dolls, Lord Muruga in a hermit's form, and Ashta Lakshmis will be present. Every year there would be confusion as to the sequence of the Dhasavathara dolls. They will start with Machha, then Varaga and in the middle some Avathar will be found out of sequence and our father would come to clarify our doubts and sometimes he too would fumble,and bring the almanac and finally all the Avathars would be placed in their rightful places.

Even the next two or three steps would be occupied by the gods and from the sixth step animals like Deer, monkeys, tigers and bears would be sitting or staring. A new doll would then be kept every year on one of the steps and this year the new member of the Golu family were two babies who on being keyed up would play and fight and then laugh at each other. These dolls became a hit with the children and stole the show.

A park would be arranged for sure and opposite to the park would be a tower gate of a temple and we would make stone way steps leading to the temple. There would be vehicles with people travelling in them, a pond with fishes swimming in it.....

Children would be playing cricket in the park, and elders resting and women relaxing on the benches.......

At last the ordeal was over. It took us nearly three hours to complete the arrangements. My mother came and checked the final outcome and from her facial expression we knew that she was satisfied and happy. She will be busy for the next nine days. She has to invite the ladies, make varieties of 'sundal' as offering to God ,which would later find their way into the stomach of the human beings....... It is a fun time for children throughout these ten days of Navarathri.

KTSRI
Translated by Radha N