Kolu (not Golu!)
I was looking at my apartment today and it suddenly
dawned on me that it is as large as the dasara kolu
we used to have at home in India. I am probably
sitting in the area that would have been set aside
for Rama's Pattabhishekam. This is the part of the
room that has the most amount of light coming in
through the glass doorway, and is visible from every
part of the house no matter where one is seated. The
gold of the thrones, the jewels of the royal family,
the beautifully embroidered fabric would have made a
magnificent scene right here.
There was a lot of effort that went into setting up the kolu, with at least 20 people working on it every day for a whole week before the guests arrived to view them for all the 10 days. There were drivers and cooks decorating the ceilings and walls with silk drapes and color lights, maidservants polishing the dolls and setting up the multi-leveled stages, the older generation choreographing the visual 'narrative', younger adults dictating the design and aesthetic, kids helping with the execution (mainly with the forest, water and snow scenes, and the making of garlands). It was a lot of hard-work, but well worth the effort.
The kolu made possible the symbiosis of the young and the old in every possible way. There were several dolls that had been passed on to us from at least three generations. Many of them were now to be handled delicately like holding a butterfly by its wings. They had to be polished and painted on neatly... in some cases they had to be glued together making sure that they looked unblemished. But most of them were intact and looked as new as ever. Then there were the new dolls that were imported from dollmakers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra who have been in this business for many generations.
The oldest generation (grandparents, great aunts) always claimed that the dolls of their childhood were even more ornate and well-crafted than the new ones. I can only imagine how exquisite the dolls were a 100 years ago by making assumptions that perfection is never what I can see now (or can imagine !). There were also some of us who wanted to display our collection of barbie dolls, GI Joes, and hot wheel cars. These were relegated to the kids' corner, which was not to be mixed with the rest of the kolu. In some relatives families, kids were encouraged to create their own dolls for the entire kolu. While, we lacked the enthusiasm for this, we boasted of a bigger, grander kolu, where the scene-setting took up a lot of creativity. Rivers for instance were made with long stretches of blue powder with the waves of many sizes neatly drawn over them with kolam (white rice powder). Forest scenes were made with carefully selected plants from the garden, fields were made with lawn grass, palace drapes were made with pattu padavais (silk sarees)... no material or detail was compromised. Kolus were a matter of pride!
We all practiced the songs that we had to sing at our kolu and everyone else's for all the ten days. We saved the best for our own, and planned carefully so that we didn't repeat any song to the same audience, should they end up in the same houses we were visiting (which was highly possible as there were easily over 100 guests attending kolus in several houses every day). We wore new clothes all ten days and dressed like we would at weddings.
Even the gifts to guests were a place to show creativity. Chundals (seasoned chickpeas) and blouse pieces aside, people had other lovely return gifts that ranged from hand-painted boxes, to little dolls, and custom-made silver lamps. (In this department, ours were the least innovative. We went with the standard! These outwardly gestures with knickknack gifts during festivals were never our territory. We only lavished praise, provided entertainment and made good company)
When the kolu was over, our work didn't end there. We had to wrap up the show (quite literally). The dolls had to be mummified neatly again and put back in the huge steel trunks they came out of. The decorations had to be purged into "re-use and throw" bins, the plants had to be taken back to the garden, the sarees and drapes had to be dry-cleaned and the rooms had to be restored to their original layout. This was again a few days job.
As I reminisce the kolu today, I can see that that era has passed. There are grand kolus still occupying whole rooms, but not the magnificent ones I remember from my childhood. I suppose no one has the time for it, even though we all look back at the past with much longing and fondness. As I think back to the older kolus I also realize that they were expensive affairs, which don't seem practical today.
That being said, the recent ones I have seen in the US and in India, while are smaller (occupying a whole room or half a room), are much more polished than the old kolus. They use expensive dolls collected from all over the world, and seem refined in the aesthetic... and somewhat contemporary even though they boast of traditional dolls that may be many years old.
I have an aunt who has the grandest dasara kolus every year with beautiful dolls collected from her travels, and several dolls that she has made herself. Her kolu makes me relive my nostalgia and in someways also surpass them because they not only transport me back to the past, but also to a whole different world that is new and unfamiliar :) There are few other aunts whose kolus makes me smile. My mom's kolu occupies a whole room and has a lovely collection of new dolls. It comes closest in style to the old kolu of my childhood days, with much of the same style-elements, but I do get on her case a lot to innovate :) (secretly I am also glad she doesn't)
At one point, I used to snobbishly deride the step-kolus (traditional kolus arranged in steps) for showing no creativity, but today as I look at pictures, I find them beautiful and elegant. I wonder why we never tried to fashion our kolus that way at least for change!
Read the rest of this post at your own discretion :) This is just a description of the kolu at home for my cousins to share nostalgia or remind them of what we used to have.
The kolu was split into several parts dedicated to different mythological and historic stories. On the left were the scenes from the Ramayana, starting with the Putrakameshti Yagna.
Dasharatha and his three wives perform a fire sacrifice to appease the gods for progeny • Rama and Lakshmana (two of Dasaratha's four sons) accompany Vishwamitra and help him fight the demons while he performs a yagna • Rama breaks the bow at the swayamwara and wins Sita's hand • Kaikeyi, after being provoked by her servant Manthara, wails to Dasaratha and claims two boons - to make her son Bharata the successor of his throne, and to exile Rama to the forest for 14 years • In the forest Lakshmana having accompanied Rama and Sita, cuts of Surpanaka's nose for seducing the brothers • Sita is enamored by a golden deer and asks Rama to capture it for her • Rama kills the golden deer to find that it is Maricha, who is Ravana's aid sent to separate Rama from Sita • Ravana disguises himself as a brahmin and tricks her into crossing the Lakshmana Rekha and carries her away • Jatayu with a broken wing from fighting Ravana informs Rama and Lakshmana of the abduction • [There were no scenes from Sundara Kanda where Rama and Lakshma meet Hanuman and the entire monkey-entourage] • Hanuman sets his tail to fire and destroys Lanka • Hanuman has himself captured by the warriors and sits in Ravana's court over a throne made out of his tail and urges Ravana to return Sita to Rama • [There were no scenes from the Yuddha Kanda where the battle between Rama and Ravana's forces take place] • Rama and Sita's Pattabhishekam takes place after much rejoining over their victory over Ravana • [There were no scenes from Uthara Kanda detailing the lives of Lava and Kusha]
On the center floor were scenes of Vrindavana from Bhagavata Purana.
Vasudeva escapes Kamsa's prison with baby Krishna and crosses the River Yamuna to Gokula and hands the baby over to Yashoda and Nanda • Krishna tames Kaliya, the poisonous naga serpent living in the Yamuna and dances on his head • Krishna climbs on top of his friends and reaches for the pot of butter in the ceiling • Krishna is reprimanded by Yashoda for eating butter and is amazed to see the whole world in his mouth when he opens it for her • Krishna plays the flute as the gopikas dance around him • [There were several scenes of Krishna and gopikas in the kolu]
On the right floor were a miscellany of scenes from other mythological stories • There were scenes depicting stories of Vishnu's Dasavatara, scenes of Shiva's many manifestations in Mount Kailasa, representations of the several hindu gods and goddesses.
On a separate aisle there was a scene of Vikramaditya's kingdom • some contemporary scenes of villages with whole huts and people interacting with other. • there were housewives going about their everyday chores such as drawing a kolam (or rangoli) in front of the house • maamis gossiping with each other • a family watching TV together • farmers working in the fields • cricketers in full white attire playing a match, etc.
There was a lot of effort that went into setting up the kolu, with at least 20 people working on it every day for a whole week before the guests arrived to view them for all the 10 days. There were drivers and cooks decorating the ceilings and walls with silk drapes and color lights, maidservants polishing the dolls and setting up the multi-leveled stages, the older generation choreographing the visual 'narrative', younger adults dictating the design and aesthetic, kids helping with the execution (mainly with the forest, water and snow scenes, and the making of garlands). It was a lot of hard-work, but well worth the effort.
The kolu made possible the symbiosis of the young and the old in every possible way. There were several dolls that had been passed on to us from at least three generations. Many of them were now to be handled delicately like holding a butterfly by its wings. They had to be polished and painted on neatly... in some cases they had to be glued together making sure that they looked unblemished. But most of them were intact and looked as new as ever. Then there were the new dolls that were imported from dollmakers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra who have been in this business for many generations.
The oldest generation (grandparents, great aunts) always claimed that the dolls of their childhood were even more ornate and well-crafted than the new ones. I can only imagine how exquisite the dolls were a 100 years ago by making assumptions that perfection is never what I can see now (or can imagine !). There were also some of us who wanted to display our collection of barbie dolls, GI Joes, and hot wheel cars. These were relegated to the kids' corner, which was not to be mixed with the rest of the kolu. In some relatives families, kids were encouraged to create their own dolls for the entire kolu. While, we lacked the enthusiasm for this, we boasted of a bigger, grander kolu, where the scene-setting took up a lot of creativity. Rivers for instance were made with long stretches of blue powder with the waves of many sizes neatly drawn over them with kolam (white rice powder). Forest scenes were made with carefully selected plants from the garden, fields were made with lawn grass, palace drapes were made with pattu padavais (silk sarees)... no material or detail was compromised. Kolus were a matter of pride!
We all practiced the songs that we had to sing at our kolu and everyone else's for all the ten days. We saved the best for our own, and planned carefully so that we didn't repeat any song to the same audience, should they end up in the same houses we were visiting (which was highly possible as there were easily over 100 guests attending kolus in several houses every day). We wore new clothes all ten days and dressed like we would at weddings.
Even the gifts to guests were a place to show creativity. Chundals (seasoned chickpeas) and blouse pieces aside, people had other lovely return gifts that ranged from hand-painted boxes, to little dolls, and custom-made silver lamps. (In this department, ours were the least innovative. We went with the standard! These outwardly gestures with knickknack gifts during festivals were never our territory. We only lavished praise, provided entertainment and made good company)
When the kolu was over, our work didn't end there. We had to wrap up the show (quite literally). The dolls had to be mummified neatly again and put back in the huge steel trunks they came out of. The decorations had to be purged into "re-use and throw" bins, the plants had to be taken back to the garden, the sarees and drapes had to be dry-cleaned and the rooms had to be restored to their original layout. This was again a few days job.
As I reminisce the kolu today, I can see that that era has passed. There are grand kolus still occupying whole rooms, but not the magnificent ones I remember from my childhood. I suppose no one has the time for it, even though we all look back at the past with much longing and fondness. As I think back to the older kolus I also realize that they were expensive affairs, which don't seem practical today.
That being said, the recent ones I have seen in the US and in India, while are smaller (occupying a whole room or half a room), are much more polished than the old kolus. They use expensive dolls collected from all over the world, and seem refined in the aesthetic... and somewhat contemporary even though they boast of traditional dolls that may be many years old.
I have an aunt who has the grandest dasara kolus every year with beautiful dolls collected from her travels, and several dolls that she has made herself. Her kolu makes me relive my nostalgia and in someways also surpass them because they not only transport me back to the past, but also to a whole different world that is new and unfamiliar :) There are few other aunts whose kolus makes me smile. My mom's kolu occupies a whole room and has a lovely collection of new dolls. It comes closest in style to the old kolu of my childhood days, with much of the same style-elements, but I do get on her case a lot to innovate :) (secretly I am also glad she doesn't)
At one point, I used to snobbishly deride the step-kolus (traditional kolus arranged in steps) for showing no creativity, but today as I look at pictures, I find them beautiful and elegant. I wonder why we never tried to fashion our kolus that way at least for change!
Read the rest of this post at your own discretion :) This is just a description of the kolu at home for my cousins to share nostalgia or remind them of what we used to have.
The kolu was split into several parts dedicated to different mythological and historic stories. On the left were the scenes from the Ramayana, starting with the Putrakameshti Yagna.
Dasharatha and his three wives perform a fire sacrifice to appease the gods for progeny • Rama and Lakshmana (two of Dasaratha's four sons) accompany Vishwamitra and help him fight the demons while he performs a yagna • Rama breaks the bow at the swayamwara and wins Sita's hand • Kaikeyi, after being provoked by her servant Manthara, wails to Dasaratha and claims two boons - to make her son Bharata the successor of his throne, and to exile Rama to the forest for 14 years • In the forest Lakshmana having accompanied Rama and Sita, cuts of Surpanaka's nose for seducing the brothers • Sita is enamored by a golden deer and asks Rama to capture it for her • Rama kills the golden deer to find that it is Maricha, who is Ravana's aid sent to separate Rama from Sita • Ravana disguises himself as a brahmin and tricks her into crossing the Lakshmana Rekha and carries her away • Jatayu with a broken wing from fighting Ravana informs Rama and Lakshmana of the abduction • [There were no scenes from Sundara Kanda where Rama and Lakshma meet Hanuman and the entire monkey-entourage] • Hanuman sets his tail to fire and destroys Lanka • Hanuman has himself captured by the warriors and sits in Ravana's court over a throne made out of his tail and urges Ravana to return Sita to Rama • [There were no scenes from the Yuddha Kanda where the battle between Rama and Ravana's forces take place] • Rama and Sita's Pattabhishekam takes place after much rejoining over their victory over Ravana • [There were no scenes from Uthara Kanda detailing the lives of Lava and Kusha]
On the center floor were scenes of Vrindavana from Bhagavata Purana.
Vasudeva escapes Kamsa's prison with baby Krishna and crosses the River Yamuna to Gokula and hands the baby over to Yashoda and Nanda • Krishna tames Kaliya, the poisonous naga serpent living in the Yamuna and dances on his head • Krishna climbs on top of his friends and reaches for the pot of butter in the ceiling • Krishna is reprimanded by Yashoda for eating butter and is amazed to see the whole world in his mouth when he opens it for her • Krishna plays the flute as the gopikas dance around him • [There were several scenes of Krishna and gopikas in the kolu]
On the right floor were a miscellany of scenes from other mythological stories • There were scenes depicting stories of Vishnu's Dasavatara, scenes of Shiva's many manifestations in Mount Kailasa, representations of the several hindu gods and goddesses.
On a separate aisle there was a scene of Vikramaditya's kingdom • some contemporary scenes of villages with whole huts and people interacting with other. • there were housewives going about their everyday chores such as drawing a kolam (or rangoli) in front of the house • maamis gossiping with each other • a family watching TV together • farmers working in the fields • cricketers in full white attire playing a match, etc.
