Navarathri Golu

- A.B

It is probably my most anticipated festival. Maybe the reason being it lasts ten whole days unlike the other festivals lasting a day or two. Also, my brother’s and my star birthdays (Birthday by Indian calendar known as Panchangam) fall during Navarathri each year.

The very word brings back so many cherished childhood memories. The different sundals made each day, rava ladoo, puttu, pottukadalai urundai( traditional south Indian sweets) and all the other sweets, new dresses, wearing pattu paavadai (silk lehengas) and last but not least setting up the golu bommais (The dolls arranged on different steps). The house looked so beautiful with kolam (rangoli) outside, filled with the smell of sweets and flowers, decked up with the bommais, neighbours and kids pouring in to see the dolls. We had special duties all day – Make a kolam in the morning, sprinkle water on our park made up for the golu, invite different ladies home to be given kumkum, turmeric and small gifts, be on the lookout for kids who try touching the dolls on display (They are all worshipped for 9 days and no one is allowed to touch them!) and finally join in when parents sit down to recite the slokas at the end of the day. I remember my Dad’s voice reciting “Mahishasura Mardhini” every time I think of Navarathri!

When I had to move out of India after my marriage, I was left with a handful of dolls which were mostly teddy bears and mickey mouses to put up a golu. After years of celebrating golu in a fashion that warms me up till date I didn’t have the heart to put up just the soft toys! After a lot of digging up on the internet ending up making some bommais with oven baked clay and other stuff. Golu included a hand-made bouquet of roses, a musical Ganesha set, clay Ganesha, soap sculpted Ganesha, a mini shettiyaar and shettichi, a temple set and a navadhanya Ganesha.

The next year with a lot of pre-planning finally selected a theme for the golu – “Festivals of India”. Along with other smaller additions the highlight was depiction of each festival in a calendar year starting from Pongal, Shivarathri, Ram Navami, Holi, Rakshabandhan, Upakarma, Karadiyan Nombhu(similar to karma chauth for tamilians), Varalakshmi Vratham, Tamil New year, Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chathurthi, Saraswathi pooja, Diwali and Skanda Shasthi. Most of the dolls were handmade.

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Welcome Home

Home Sweet Home. That is an apt description for a place where we spend most of our time and happy hours of our lives.

A.B and myself have been friends from school times. When she suggested that we start our own blog with all our little homemaking ideas, I realized this was an idea we couldn't let go of. And that's how we started collecting all these little niceties that make a house a home.


Before you move on, a small introduction about us-

N.B
Born and Brought up in a traditional South Indian family, I grew up admiring my mother's handwork, culinary skills and my grandmother's enthusiasm for homemaking. By the time I graduated from high school, I could prepare a decent meal and by the time I graduated from college, I developed a passion for handwork and crafts.

A.B
As a kid I was always told that if I developed my taste-buds my marks would go down :P Well whether it is true or not my childhood love was just books (mostly novels but also a few textbooks)! Post marriage forced to cook for a good food loving husband, I started cooking and now I really love and enjoy cooking! Handwork gives me a satisfaction not derived from other sources so I try to work on it in all my sparetime!


Now that The formal introductions are complete, we take you into the small cheers our homes are made of. Hope you enjoy the blog posts as much as we enjoyed creating them :-)