Navarathri – It’s that time of the festival calendar when women take centre-stage in their households. No wonder the cultural and commercial hub of the city, Mylapore, was buzzing with activity on Monday morning, with conservative mamis, modern day working women, home makers and fashionable teenage girls rubbing shoulders with each other as they hopped in and out of shops looking to make new additions to their Kolu this year.
Well, if numeral ‘nine’ enjoys a special place in Indian culture and tradition – Navagriha, Navadaniya, Navaratna, Navarasa – nowhere is its significance more evident than in the ‘Festival of Nine Nights,’ when the feminine forms of the divine are worshipped in their glorious manifestations of courage, wealth and knowledge.
For sisters Nalini Venkateswar (65) and Anusuya Padmanabhan (67), residents of R A Puram, the festival symbolises woman power. The two women have been keeping kolu for the last 50 years. While they buy big clay dolls of gods and goddesses from Choolai, their bags are filled with several small fibre figurines picked up from the pavements in Mylapore.
Anusuya says she also displays English porcelain dancing dolls, which she inherited from her mother-in-law. For the religious sisters, however, the focus of the entire festival is Goddess Karpagambal.
Echoing their views is V Subha, who is scouting a leading fancy store for gifts. A resident of Alamelumangapuram, who has been keeping kolu for the last 13 years, she says: “It is like ‘Thayar’ coming to visit to us.”
Interior designer Vijayalakshmi Srikumar (40) is more inclined towards cane products like mats for her seven-step kolu, as they suit her “ethnic taste”. She is also veering towards marble dolls this year.
Whatever the kolu trappings, ask the women what the festival holds for them, they answer in one voice: It is a get-together time for them.
Says 72-year-old T R Usha, a resident of Teynampet, “It is an opportunity to meet friends and relatives. They visit our houses and we go to theirs.”
And the mode of invitation has changed with the changing times. Phone calls, SMS messages and e-mails have replaced printed invitations and door-to-door calls. Nalini and Anusuya say they honour all invitations, even those from strangers. “A co-passenger on a flight invited us to her kolu in Tambaram and we will be definitely going,” they say.
If kolu is here, can the sundal treat be far behind? The sundal menus are carefully prepared beforehand so that there is no repetition.
And if you thought that Gen X was an uninterested lot, think again. B Shweta, a class 10 student, loves the “festive atmosphere and the visitors to her house.” She says she actively helps her mother in setting up the three-step kolu and prepares the tamboolam and gifts for the guests.
And for teenagers like her, it is also an opportunity to dress up every day.
Brushing aside all talk of the festival losing its sheen, both the old and the young claim that the fervour has actually increased. “The shops are also bustling with a lot of products and a huge range of gift items,” says Vijayalakshmi, who says that she started keeping kolu at the prodding of her 10-year-old daughter.
And when City Express asked all of them what they were planning to sing at the kolu, Sri Chakra Rajasimhasaneswari was listed at the top.
