BENGALURU: One of the exciting parts of Dasara, for many children, is the arrangement of dolls in tiers and showcasing it to visiting friends and family.
For new parents Vani and Niranjan, this Dasara is special since it’s their first after the birth of their son Aryan. An excited Vani says, “Aryan’s arrival marks this Dasara as extra special for us. Even though he doesn’t understand much, we are still making it grand because we want to give him special things to look back on when he is older. For us, this festival has a connection with agriculture. Crops of different varieties are grown in a tray and offered to the deity. We have kept wheat and ragi as offerings this year. To add a bit of variety, we also created a park, figures of people playing cricket and so on.”
As an added custom, in some families, girls aged one to nine are worshipped and gifts offered to them to signify the power of Goddess Durga and her triumph over evil. Chandrakala says that her children are always excited and extra mischievous during Dasara. They would often help her arrange the dolls and eventually they began to do the entire set-up by themselves. Kirti, her 3-year-old granddaughter does not fully understand the arrangements but she says that she likes the lights and the sweets that her grandmother makes. Her favorite part, she said was when they were doing the puja for her although she also admitted that she did not know what it was for.
Boys too actively take part in arranging the dolls and consider this as an important task to be done with utmost care. ninth grade student Ajay Kumar, says “Our family follows the Mysore tradition, where the main dolls which are kept are the Raja and Rani. These are accompanied by dolls of different varieties, like figures of Gods, animals and also colorful lights and garlands. This year, the whole arrangement was done by me and my mother helped me.” Aditya and Aditi, also 9th graders seem to know a lot about the tradition behind this arrangement. “Being culturally rooted, we were taught about the significance about the arrangement and certain rules that need to be followed, like the tiers should always be in odd numbers, the first doll to be kept is the boy and girl and many other things.” says Aditya. His twin Aditi,chips in saying, “Since we’ve always loved it doing it, our parents now let us do the whole thing by ourselves. This makes Dasara all the more exciting for us.”
As children grow older, there seems to be a marked shift towards two directions. On one hand,students like Rashmi say that her busy schedule in college often leaves her unable to help her mother during the arrangement. But, she does do it at times, whenever time permits or tries to be a part in some other way.On the other hand, Sahana, a 1st PUC student, said that Gombe Habba (the festival of dolls in Kannada) is a very special occasion for her. Her mother often gets her dolls from Krishnagiri. This year, she has somehow found the time to do the entire arrangement by herself as her mother was busy with work. She finds the activity fun and exciting.
With Dasara around the corner, most families are gearing up to celebrate it with joy and fervour. No stones are left unturned,for this is one festival that never loses its charm and is the most awaited one of the year.