NAVARATRI

 From Sampath’s Desk:

 

NAVARATRI  - SPIRIT LIFTING FESTIVAL SEASON

         

Come September-October, ‘Navarathri’ celebrations would start with a bang throughout India heralding the upcoming festival season. The way Navarathri is celebrated differs from region to region, and state to state. While it is called ‘Durga Pooja’ in Bengal, Dussehra in Karnataka and 'Kolu/Ayudha Puja’ in Tamilnadu, in the rest of the country, it is celebrated with ‘thematic public dances’ mostly depicting Hindu religious stories and anecdotes in which people participate as a societal interactive season kindling devout flair, fervour and spirit. 

 

As the name itself implies, celebrations are spread over nine days (rather nine nights) when families which can afford, shall have the ‘Bommai Kolu’ arraying different kinds and sizes of dolls normally made of mud-clay mix in a motley of colours that will be on display in the stands consisting of many steps (mostly in odd numbers) with eco-friendly papier mache and even plaster of Paris items now being increasingly used. Each of the nine days is dedicated to the Goddess in different 'Avtars' (forms or incarnations).

 

‘Kolus’ with creative themes showcased catch the eyes and minds of onlookers. It is really a visual feast. ‘Navarathri’ is a season to celebrate, socialize and splurge. It is an occasion and medium of societal networking and social engineering, an interactive platform  carried through generations even in this modernized and mind-boggling speedy e-era. 

 

There is an order in which dolls are to be arrayed. Gods and Goddesses shall be atop. Below them would adorn different human-beings in different attires in diverse postures. Down under would be organized other living-beings like animals and birds,  The lowest step(s) would be for plants, trees, and inanimate objects. Lastly in the floor would appear, ‘Kolams’, ‘Rangoli’ and other captivating decorations and embellishments including festoons, confetti, mock-park, temple with tank and related sceneries, marriage congregation, etc., a grand attraction for viewers.

 

A supposedly feminine festival doesn't bar male relatives and friends partaking in the event to enjoy the fun and frolic. The visitors (mostly females) would sing songs – devotional hymns mainly – much to the delight of listeners. The whole mirth-savvy ambience would present an optical delight with a cultural extravaganza background. Women would, as a custom and tradition, offer to the visiting female relatives and friends betel-leaves/nuts, kumkum, turmeric pieces, fruits, coconuts, etc. along with delicious protein-rich ‘Sundal’ (cooked spicy pulses and grains) and/or any other mouth-watering delicacy. Some add a gift also.

 

Traditions somehow retain the flavour, but of course not the fervour. ‘Kolu’ offers soiree for people to mingle with each other. Far from arranging ‘Kolu’, the host has to maintain/perform related rituals with devotional tinge.

 

In my boyhood days, each day of Navarathri was a field day. We, the boys, would be knocking at every door for getting a share of some eatable. With no penny in hand, this was a convenient occasion for us to saunter across from one house to another where Kolu was organized to get something to munch. Whenever we didn’t get favour with any household in getting Sundal or other eatable, the boys would howl, yell, jeer, boo, hoot and heckle, and what not, at inmates for a while before moving on to the next door. In the whirlpool of innocence as children not in the know of behavioural etiquette in our formative days, we had behaved in such a manner thinking it to be innocuous, though I now deem it as a disgraceful and reprehensible act. It was only out of the peer group influence. Nowadays, due to fragmentation of once joint families and emergence of nuclear family units with both husband and wife mostly employed, the staggering distances separating relatives and friends in the ever-expansive urban and semi-urban milieus, people live a lackluster life with scant care or respect for relationship/friendship building albeit festivals like Navarathri facilitating an ideal rendezvous for close interactions. What to do? Today, we have attached bathrooms and detached families!

 

Now people don’t have propensity towards festivity, inter-mingling and exchange of visits, thanks to the robot-like lifestyles with galloping minds aided by electronic gadgets including ubiquitous mobile phones. Even some families showing a little interest in traditional festivals make only perfunctory indulgence. 

Let us awaken the passion, penchant and lively spirits in ourselves and try to salvage some moral fibre and mettle of relationship and friendship symbolized by such festive seasons natural hassles or man-made constraints notwithstanding!

 

 

 

R.SAMPATH