Navarathiri Special..

As navarathiri is fast approaching..we can see the festive fever catching up, with the shops displaying best of the dolls (golu bommais..famously called), hindu homes getting ready to welcome the 9 days with a grand display of golu padis (steps) , children all excited to keep their books out of their sight esp on the saraswathi pooja which gives off to all studying stuff.., and also each one in the family thinking some innovative ways of displaying the dolls and creating mini parks,zoos et al..

During my childhood days i was always fascinated by navarathiri, majorly looking forward to it in the quarterly holidays..and another important thing of interest is visiting neighbourhood homes collecting 'suda suda' sundal and goin back home with a huge sense of truimph depending on the quantity of sundal collected that day !! Though devouring sundal was not my main aim...collecting it was a part of the game those days...with all neighbourhood kids...!

Also comes the 'dressing up' part of navarathiri where kids get themselves dressed as krishna,radha,rukmani and other deities...! I should say i got into this trap couple of times but later managed to escape from my mom giving some real silly excuses, Afterall u grow up at one point of time :) !

The actual navarathiri feel comes when we invite people home. It is customary to sing a keertan (a song in praise of the gods and goddesses). For those who have a knowledge of music, the festival is a dais to exhibit their musical skills and revel in the praise showered (i.e. if the singer sings well).

For the others like me, it is a nightmare. I have seen women and girls who talk in a hoarse voice all ten days of Navarathiri. No, it is not because their vocal cords have been strained due to excessive singing, but because they would like to escape from the torture and pretend as if they have a bad throat. The 'sore throat' has always come as a handy excuse for me those days !

Now when i am writing this, I feel as days pass by the way the festivals are celebrated is losing the charm, with the advent of so many cable channels people are hooked on to their idiot boxes watching 'Indhiya tholaikaatchiyil mudhal muraiyaga...Thiraikku varaamal..Interval varaiyil edukka patta thiraipadam' and few nonsense interviews with movie stars..I think we cannot regain those days when festivals were celebrated as Festivals !!!