Wednesday, October 24, 2007




Dassera is synonymous with Durga Puja and Navratri. In TamilNadu, we celebrate it as Golu where colourful clay figurines of Gods and Goddesses are arranged in steps for the nine days . The Gods gave way to mortals and soon we had Ram and Krishna with snake charmers and cobblers .



I was always fascinated by this festival because it was like reliving Indian tradition and mythology and stories from religious texts ...the childhood fascination which started off with parks and zoos soon grew into an interest and I have slowly started having my own collection . Beyond religion, it was art for me and a celebration of legends .



Ive been keeping golu in my house for three years and this year, it was the first in Bangalore (the last two was in Chennai or Madras) From Dasavatharam to Meenakshi Kalyanam, from Krishna with his Gopikas to Rama with Seetha, Lakshman and the faithful Hanuman, my small collection has been growing and so is my connection to my roots and culture .

15 comments:

mark drago said...

b-p: when you say "keeping...for 3 hours", how do you mean?

Lakshmi said...

lol -that was a mistake ..pardon me, that was "years" :) thanks for pointing it out

Anonymous said...

oh, ok: I was thinking, wow, she arranges all the figures, and then takes them back down after 3 hours!"

Lakshmi said...

I wish I had that kinda patience ...

Mansi said...

nice depiction of the festival!

Reeta Skeeter said...

I love your collection... the first pic is lovely and Golu :) Thanks for telling us about it...I never knew of such a festival.

Lakshmi said...

Mansi, Reeta

Thanks ..Im delighted that you liked them - Ive been collecting them for over 4 years now :)

abc said...

Having missed it out in person..... got to see it this way.... nice collection... keep collecting...... will make it next year:)

Lakshmi said...

Bhu - Pls make it a point to come next year ..

Ashley said...

Wow. That is quite a collection you have. I have some as well, which I have received as gifts. Very interesting site.
Come visit my Travel Blog :)

Lakshmi said...

Thanks Ashley..thats nice to hear that you have a collection as well ..thanks for visiting my blog..do visit my main travel blog

Unknown said...

This collection is stunning! I could pour over them for hours!

The colors and names and stories...I adore this!

thank you for sharing

Lakshmi said...

thanks stephanie..Indian mythology and stories are interesting :) im planning to do it in a grand scale

Anonymous said...

How come u have 4 steps or am I seeing it wrong?

Sapna Anu B.George said...

Superb dear, i was serching for some information on Golu, great setting you have there