Navarathri or golu in colloquial terms is far more than simply arranging of mud-dolls in a stand, visiting others’ houses, receiving and giving of gifts which are done for the sake of doing by people these days.
Navarathri means ‘nine nights.’ This depicts the nine days of fight between Goddess Durga Devi and Mahishasura, the demon. The tenth day, Vijayadashami is the day of victory of Durga over Mahishasura. These nine days are for celebrating the victory of the good over the evil forces. Also, these days are said to be auspicious for other goddesses like Shakthi, Lakshmi and Saraswathi.
Vivekananda Kendra is an organization set up in 1972, with an idea of man-making and nation-building by Shri Eknathji Ranade. At Vivekananda Kendra in Chennai, many classes including ‘Sanskara varga’ or cultural classes for students of classes 3 to 8 and Intergrated Personality development Classes for students of classes 9 to 12 are conducted.
At Kendra, the golu gala has already begun this year. The extravagant navarathri set up is a real feast to the eyes. Almost every single type of dolls, including, mud dolls, paper-mesh dolls, from the old traditional ones to the latest trendy ones are kept.
The highlights of the golu are the Garuda sevai, Arupadai Veedu set and the Saraswathi-Shakthi-Lakshmi bronze combo that took the centre. Even more exciting is the model theme on ‘Chennai’ set up breaking the monotony of the usual mud parks built. This included one side with the old Chennai, having pictures of certain important places that were taken long ago and the other side with their present day counterparts.
On the whole, a person who sees this can be promised to get an epic effect and the décor too added up to the beauty .