The Tamil households celebrate the nine-day Navratri festival with elaborate "golu" arrangements.
With just a few days left for the Golu festival to start, Tamilians in the city are busy shopping. And a 60-year-old shop in the Telang bylane of Matunga – the Giri shop – has become the place to be, with a variety of dolls and idols lined up for sale.
The Tamil households celebrate the nine-day Navratri festival with elaborate "golu" arrangements. Odd number of steps or tiers, known as golu padi, are set up by the families and dolls are displayed on those steps.
Speaking about the dolls, Giri shop co-owner Rekha Viswanathan said, "A new set of dolls is introduced every year as people like to set up theme-based golu in their household. We have dolls made of papier mâché. clay and wood. We import them from the south of India and start displaying them 20 days ahead of the festival. Idols of goddess Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati are important while exhibiting golu in the house. Other dolls are used for decoration. We also get orders from other states and countries."
On Wednesday, Jaya Kannan and Mira Swaminathan came to Matunga all the way from Nariman Point, looking for the Giri shop. Kannan said, "I usually use my old dolls but I am looking for a new goddess idol this year."
Different dolls related to cartoon characters, weddings, Krishna leela, farming activity, bhajans, temples etc are displayed as themes for the golu festival. "The theme depends upon the family's creativity. It is a tradition to add one new doll each year and to keep the three goddess idols as well," said Rekha.
It is also a tradition to visit relatives and friends to see their golu.
On the other hand is Revathi Sridhar (58), a Tamilian from Chembur, who makes her own dolls. "This year, we have Krishna Leela as the theme. We decided the theme well in advance and I started making the dolls according to the story. We have two golu at our home. The theme-based golu is placed on the table while the traditional golu is kept on golu padi. Every day, we distribute prasad made of different pulses and sweets to the visitors coming for haldi-kumkum functions."
Meanwhile, to keep the culture and tradition alive, the SIES College in Sion will celebrate the festival in college premises. Principal Uma Shankar said, "Due to less time and space, we will celebrate only for one day – October 7. The festival is being organised by the Tamil Association of the college. Two days ahead of the celebration, we will start unpacking the dolls from the previous years and paint them, if required. Since there is a tradition to add at least one new doll, students are encouraged to bring them."
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