Kamlas India

'Tis the start of the Indian festive season, and it looks like the retailers in India have gotten very savvy with their marketing. There is now a well-thought through and systematic ad campaign targetting (sp?) various segments of the population, and it starts with jewels, and goes up to white goods (does anyone know why it is referred to as white goods?), cars, bank loans etc. I dunno if I am the only one, or others have noticed the trend, but diamonds are big in India. The papers and the magazines are filled with ads for diamonds this and diamond that, and not too long ago Page 3 of Times of India, which educates the youths of the country on fashion, dating etc, carried an article on what kinds of jewels metrosexuals should sport with their different attires. Hmmmm, I guess the coversation must go something like this: "Should I wear the diamond pendant or the thick Italian gold chain with this outfit of mine? Or should I just be myself and not adorn my body with any jewels..."

But, I digress...Kollu,Dasshera, Dusshera, Dasara, Navaratri bring different kinds of feelings and memories for me. Those words evoke some special images from the past, when everything was so different, and we were not caught up with this materialistic thread of our lives.

The festive season begins with Dassera, Dusherra, Kollu, Gollu, Navarathri, Navaratra...however you want to call it. These 9 days of culminate in different kinds of puja, and I guss 10 days after that Diwali, Deepavali starts.

I was quite clueless on how various parts of the country celebrated Navaratri until I moved to the SF Bay Area, which has Indians from different states. For me, Navaratri meant going for Kollu or Gollu puja, eating sundal (South Indian dish of black chana tempered with mustard, curry leaves and coconut shavings), and the 9 days of celebration finally culminates in a grand finale that was a combination of car puja and Saraswati puja.

The best part was the kollu or doll decoration. I guess that is what it is called. Basically the living room would be turned into this elaborate place where dolls and artefacts of various kinds would be displayed in a series of steps or "paddis" that would be draped in pristine white sheets. (I am not sure why the dolls are displayed). Pople would let loose their creative streak, and build little towns, complete with houses, toy trucks and cars, that sometimes had real grass, acutally wheat growing on these little miniature towships. Often, people would also bring out their train sets that their dad would have gotten from England and America and display it for the public. Now, the grandeur of the celebration depended on the number of steps you had...the more steps you had, the better your kollu display was supposed to be. Then, you went around the neighbourhood inviting people to come and see the kollu and praise the handiwork, and in the process get some free "thindi," (food) to munch. And, if you happened to taking singing classes, then it was mandatory that you sing a bhajan. There was no escaping it. This was the time when girls would wear their best "pattu pavadai" (long silk skirts) complete with various jewellery pieces that their mothers had been dutifully and carefully hoarding for their daughters. I was always invited for these gatherings since we did not celebrate navarartri this way. For me it was loads of fun to walk around the neighborhood and participate in the festivities.

What we did celebrate was the car puja and the Saraswati puja. For the car puja, the car would be washed thoroughly, and decorated with flowers and garlands, and smeared with vermillion and sandalwood paste, and dutifully the driver would place four lemons under the four tyres of the car, and drive over it. This was meant to ward off the evil eye. I forgot to mention, sometimes the driver would get creative and tie tender banana plants to the front of the car, in front of the headlights. It was quite a ritual that would start early in the morning, and finally a prasad consisting of puffer rice, spiked with gur and mishri would be passed around to everyone.

What I remember of the Sarasawati puja was that we had a day off from school and would place the books in the puja room. I am not sure if we were supposed to study or not on that day. My recollection is faint on this aspect.

Now, cut to the SF Bay Area, and suddenly I learn about how Gujaratis, Marathis, Marwaris and others celebrated Navratri. I had no concept of ras dandiya or dandiya ras, and the whole communal dancing thing. Neither did I know that none of these other communities held Kollu or this little doll exhibition show. What I learnt instead is that each community celebrates this festival in a slightly different way, and many of the older people fast for 9 days during this period. But, I never did once visit or hear of a kollu in Silicon Valley, and this could be because I was removed from the close-knit Tamil circuit. And then one year I got an opportunity to attend the kollu celebration in Silicon Valley, and I must thank a relative of ours for this and her enterprsing "mami connection" in Saratoga. She hats it when I refer to her cronies as mamis and their whole ladies club circuit as "mami connection." Saratoga is one of those quaint little towns in Silicon Valley that and is filled with Tamilians. I am not sure how this came to pass, but there is a huge concentration people from the Tamil community who celebrate all the festivals with great gusto. They fondly refer to their city as "Saratogam." I discovered that there is a whole kollu circuit that the Tamilians in Bay Area travel during these 9 days, and many travel 100-150 miles miles over the weekend and hit all the interesting points in this kollu circuit. Some of them have elaborate paddis and food spread. In some houses the food was catered by special caterers and there was a whole array of dishes right from the kitchens of Punjab to Kanya Kumari. Jostling for attention along with the humble sundal, were the yummy tikkis, regular samosas, cocktail samosas, bhajji, pakoda, alu bonda, dhoklas, thayir saddham, puliodharai, lemon rice, veg biryani, puri, paneer, etc etc. I guess the folks had pushed it one level higher, and took it a whole new level of celebration. This was maybe in keeping with that favorite phrase that you hear in the valley all the time...let us take it to the next level, or push it one notch higher. Now, as I travelled around this circuit, I kept bumping into the same set of people at every home during the course of the evening. The conversation did not vary much and this kollu celebration was a tailor made opportunity for them to catch up on which company was going IPO, what stocks are doing well, who has started what company, and who made how much money etc. Along with catching up on the news, these folks were also busy stashing food in various ziplock bags. One creative lady said that she has collected enough food for a whole week. While it was nice to go around and see Kollu celebrated in Silicon Valley, I somehow preferred the way it was celebrated in Madras, which had a touch of sincerity and innocence.