Kolu 2010

When I was a kid, our family lived near a shopping area.  To be exact, we lived in Pondy Bazaar in Chennai. I used to watch people buy things, window shop, roam and enjoy in that area.  Whenever there is a festival, the area would be filled with people, shopping for things. As all kids, I too loved festivals.  My parents used to celebrate all the festival except this Kolu(which is very colorful and attractive for kids).   I used to put a chair in the Balcony and watch the dolls arranged neatly in the shops. My friends, used to invite me for the kolu. I loved to visit them. A few times, I had even asked my parents to celebrate Kolu at home.  But they had other great things to do. That was past.
When my atai came last year, she brought some dolls with her. She celebrated it last year(I mean virathams, slogams, songs, sutha bhatham). And the tradition continues this year by mee ;-).  I did everything virathams, slogams, songs, sutha bhathams and even neivethyams.  I wanted to tell stories about the gods and goddesses but I found very hard to squeeze time for that. Harder than that was managing Kolu with 2 toddlers.  My nemo used to take all the third row things.  Thank God they dint break. And one day he put his finger into the burning camphor and cried all the night along with me. Ooops that was another story. MM was soo happy as he got some or other different dish to enjoy daily. It was fun. Two weeks flew like a few minutes..
We invited all our friends. I even invited few americans. Our neighbor who is a very old lady(she is 83, a lovely woman, I should write a full page post about her) came and asked about all the dolls. She even invited her daughter and grand kids visit the kolu. I was very happy when they all came. I felt like I was in India.
Hope I continue this next year too.