Navarathri

As a kid, this was my favorite festival. It didn't just get done in one day, or even two (like Holi and Diwali), it went on for ten days, not counting all the days of prep before. It seemed like a this festival had something for all: great food, craft work, theater, singing, dancing, art work, games, you name it! I was lucky enough to live in a cosmopolitan university town to see it all come together.

We had the local mela with gol-guppa stands, the games, Ram Lila and the all-important burning of Ravan. We had the larger than life statues of Durga, bengali sweets, garba dances, sundal, singing, and my favorite, GOLU. For me, Golu was all about craft work. One could make houses with shoe boxes, dolls from rags, clay mountains, and fields of sprouted mustard. One spent hours arranging the beds and tables to make the steps, and covering them - just so - with white bedsheets, for display.

Even though, Golu was not a family tradition, I convinced my mom to adopt it, and make it one. Now, years later, the brats and I put together a golu every year, with the brats doing more and more every year. To celebrate the diversity of this festival and of the land we live in, we try to represent different countries, cultures, and races in our golu. We have a beautiful vintage dutch girl, a chinese couple, a namibian herero tribal, a cambodian princess, a korean woman, a japanese geisha and more in our golu collection. This year, we constructed a village house, a performing stage and multiple rangolis - one with daal, one with flower petals, one with paint, and one with chalk.

I am no longer a little girl in pig tails, and have to juggle work, dinner, family time, laundry, and cleaning, in addition to making the Golu. When the kids decide to try a new project, I find myself working to make sure that they do not spill glue, leave bits of paper strewn, or topple one of the delicately balanced golu-padis. Every bone hurts at the end of the day - and I am constantly battling the brats to limit the scope of our Golu. Yet, every moment is worth it, and I look forward to many years of Golu, and hope that the brats, and their brats, will continue this tradition.

[Picture is of our golu this year when it almost came together]