Navratri Nostalgia

I was invited by Pree to join her Durga Puja blog event, "Beyond Five Days of Durga Puja". Let me admit right off the bat, that even though I have wanted to for years...I have never been part of an authentic pandal-hopping Bengali Durga Puja event, inspite of a cousin living in Kolkata who has always asked me to come visit! But Durga Puja in Kolkata or Navratri in Tamil Nadu, Kullu Dussehra in Himachal Pradesh or Bommai Kolu in AP and Karnataka, for each and every Indian it is the same - 9 days of reverence, decoration, food and festivites culminating in the 10th day or Vijaya Dasami, the day we loved as children, cos we had to keep all our school books in the prayer room for Goddess Saraswati, and got away without doing homework!!!!

For as long as I can remember, the best place to be for these 9 days was, and still is, our ancestral home in Chennai. This is where nothing has changed in the way Navratri is celebrated, over the last 80 odd years! It was home to 6 families at one time living jointly, but of course over the past years people have passed on and children have left for the US in search of fame and fortune, so only 6 people reside there now. But even today, come Navratri, the rituals and customs stay the same...and while we were away in the US for 23 years, we would get all the news about the preparations, and pictures and descriptions would be sent by obliging family members.
Here are some pics to give you an idea...every day the flower arrangement would be devoted to a particular God

Sifting and sorting through all the flowers bought at the market...pink and red rose petals, yellow and saffron marigolds, green leaved "davanam" or Artemesia, purple chrysanthemums and intoxicating white jasmine. The fragrance would linger in the house for days after...

Gossiping and threading the flowers to make garlands

Decorating Lord Shiva's bull - the Nandi

Flowers forming the symbol of Shiva, the linga

The peacock and the spear (or Vel), dedicated to the war god, Lord Muruga, the second son of Lord Shiva

The discus and the conch symolizing Lord Vishnu

Goddess Lakshmi sitting on a lotus

The Brindavanam of Sri Raghavendra Swamy

18 squares symbolizing the 18 holy steps one has to climb to view the Sanctum Sanctorum of Lord Ayyappa in Sabarimala

The favorite elephant god Ganesha!

It was nothing so elaborate in my home...but my mother religiously set up the "Golu" - a gallery of handcrafted dolls representing major deities, scenes from everyday life, doll sets representing mythological events and so on. These dolls get handed down from generation to generation. In Tamil, Golu means a sovereign sitting in his royal durbar. The underlying belief in arranging the dolls in a tier is to depict Goddess Durga or Mahishasuramardhini, sitting in her Golu, prior to the slaying of the demon Mahishasura!

But whether it was our family home in Chennai or our home, the best part always came after the prayer - the food! For each of the nine days a different sweet dish would be prepared. One day it would be creamy semiyan payasam or kheer, the next day sticky chakra pongal/jaggery rice laced with cashews, then it would be rich rava kesari or melt in your mouth mysore pak!

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And then to balance the sweetness there was sundal......tangy, spiced chick peas seasoned with mustard and garnished with grated coconut.

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Recipe for sundal:

1 cup chole/white chick peas or garbanzo beans soaked overnight
1/4 tsp oil
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1tsp black gram dal
1-2 dried red chilies - adjust to taste
2-3 tbsp freshly grated coconut, frozen works too
salt to taste

Drain the chick peas, add 1 1/2 cups of water, bring to high boil and cook over a stove top so it does not get too cooked and mushy. It should have a bite to it, not too soft or too raw. It should take about 15 minutes. Halfway through add some salt to it. Drain the water. In a skillet add the oil, add the mustard seeds. Once they start popping add the black gram dal and red chilies. Stir till the black gram turns reddish brown. Add the cooked chick peas and give it a toss. Add the coconut, cook for another 2 minutes, serve warm.


So what will I be doing this Navratri??? I will decorate our puja room with flowers, light lamps in the evenings, maybe make sundal......and then my mom just told me this evening that she has unearthed an old wooden box that had been hiding in her loft, which has really old handcrafted mud dolls that belonged to her grandmother.....!!! So I am waiting eagerly for her to bring them tomorrow....shall share that will all of you!
Have a great holiday and festival season!