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2023 - The Year That Was

Places impact you for a variety of reasons. And the same place impacts different people in different ways. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual experiences, where every single person’s experience is unique. And personally, every spiritual experience is unique, the same person can have different deeply spiritual experiences at different places, at different times. This thought has emerged because of my own experiences over the years, but especially so this year, with different and unique experiences at various places I have visited recently. I began this year with a visit to Baroda (Vadodara) with friends. It was meant to be a relaxed trip, a touristy trip, with our sons. We enjoyed ourselves to the hilt, but the highlight of that trip was a visit to the Lakulisha temple at Pavagadh. It was the iconography of the temple that I connected with, and I spent a few hours simply lost in the details of the figures carved around the temple. There was an indefinable connect with
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More Navaratri Kolus for you....

Any festival signifies a hectic time, but none more so than Navaratri! We have to visit all our relatives and friends to see what they have come up with for the festival, catch up with all the kolus in the vicinity, see the latest arrangement at the temple, and over and above all this, we also have to play host to everyone who visits us! It can get really hectic, especially with school on in full swing, but its an enjoyable ten days! This is practically the only time of the year we get to meet so many of our said relatives and friends. Everyone is too busy the rest of the year with their own lives to go and meet anyone else! Besides, we also get some wonderful ideas for our kolu next year!  Since the people we visit are almost usually the same, the dolls and kolus are almost usually the same too! Only sometimes do we see something new, so this time, I decided not to bore you all with the same kolu pics from everyones' houses, but just some pics of things I found special or interesting.....



First, this is the kolu made by an uncle who was an engineer by profession, and makes some of the best kolus I have ever seen. Last year, he had made an American village as well as an Indian one, and another time, he had replicated the entire Dadar Railway station in miniature! This year, his arrangement was simpler (he is, of course, not getting any younger), but we still loved it! Here are some glimpses....

The main theme was based on various stories of Lord Vishnu...

 

and below it was an Indian village....


This was the main kolu with the steps....


And what I liked the most were the traditional tall south Indian lamps, all dressed up to resemble the Devi...



Next up is a cousin's kolu. I love seeing her arrangement for the dolls - most of them are old ones, which have a charm of their own! Here is a view at the entire arrangement....

 

and here are the ones I liked the most - the Dashavataram set.....unfortunately, it is not a complete set, since a couple of dolls have broken, but see the detail and the beauty of the dolls. These days, most Dashavatar dolls look almost the same, with no details actually visible....

From Navaratri 2011
Incidentally, I was just writing this post, when I saw Lakshmi's  older post on her kolu, and I was so thrilled to see the same set, though complete, at her place too! Head over to her blog to take a look!

Those of you in Chennai, please take a second, closer look. And if you ever see a set like this, please, please, please get it for me!!!!

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  1. Maanasa lahariOctober 3, 2011 at 6:24 PM

    Wow.... lovely dolls... Pls check out mine too here - http://sumsarena.blogspot.com/2011/10/navarathri-dasara-doll-arrangements.html and prev year's here - http://sumsarena.blogspot.com/2009/09/navarathri-festival-of-dolls.html 

    ReplyDelete
  2. teamgsquareOctober 3, 2011 at 9:53 PM

    Wow , wonderful . Dasavatharas

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sowmya03October 4, 2011 at 7:31 AM

    Thanks Anu, your enthusiasm and pics, keep us going in these times:))

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anu ShankarOctober 4, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    Thanks a lot! I have left a comment on your blog too... your dolls are lovely!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anu ShankarOctober 4, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    oh yes they are!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anu ShankarOctober 4, 2011 at 12:19 PM

    Thanks so much sowmya!

    ReplyDelete

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