Navaratri 2010 - Day 10 - Part 1 - Vijayadasami

The nine days of the festival are over, and the tenth day is a fitting conclusion to nine days of revelry. Signifying the victory of good over evil, it heralds new beginnings and is a day for starting new ventures. 

Vijayadasami is a day not just for celebrations, but also auspicious for starting something new. This year, Samhith begins his official studies in Carnatic Music (sounds great, doesn't it? But its just an euphemism for saying that his new music classes started today :)) We started off the day at the Fine Arts Society, Chembur, where we officially began the class by paying our respects to the teachers and repeating a couple of lines of the new songs from her. However, the main attraction there is their spectacular Golu.

Spectacular is the right word, for they have 15 huge steps full of dolls, each one better than the other! Most of them are huge and so well crafted, it is a pleasure to see them year after year. They also manage to get some interesting new ones every year, and also make a side-decoration which never fails to give us some wonderful ideas! Here is the Golu.......

And now for some of the dolls which caught our attention.....

Here is what Samhith loved the most - not surprisingly - Krishna lifting Govardhana Hill.

Next is one of Garuda with Lord Vishnu on his shoulders.

And now for my favourites - the Dashavatar Set. Those of you who have seen Golus will know that this is probably the most common one in the lot! Almost everyone has them (we don't, but then we don't have many sets anyway!), but what's special here is the detailing. There are few dolls with such beautiful detailing work available these days, which is why we haven't yet bought one! First on are Matsya, Kurma and Varaha.....

followed by Vamana and Narasimha (interestingly, the order here has been reversed. This is the first time I have seen the FAS make such an error. They are usually sticklers for perfection and correctness!)

Next are Parasurama and Rama....

Finally concluding with Balarama, Krishna and Kalki. (again, Balarama and Rama have been interchanged... Guess they have been too busy,or someone new has been setting it up!)

If you look close, you will see that Rama, Balarama and Krishna are clearly identifiable, which is not the case with many toys these days. But the USP of this set happens to be the last one in the series - Kalki. See how he is depicted, riding on a white horse? That is the way he is always described, but for some reason, the toy makers these days seem to have decided to depict him with the head of the horse!!!! This is the only place I have seen such an old-fashioned idol! Now, if only I could find one like this now, I would buy it immediately for my collection!!!

Anyway, moving on, here is the side decoration, this time representing mountains and the six famous temples of Lord Muruga, known as the Arupadai Veedu.

Here it is again, with the lights.....

The idea this time is rather simple, with just a mountain backdrop with their huge idol of Muruga on top, as you can see above, and the lower portion has the six temples represented by their various idols. This is also quite  a common set, but one which I like very much. 

Here is the village on the foothills, with a temple chariot procession..

A closer look at the chariot with the Lord inside...

The village women drawing water from a well....

The vegetable and fruit sellers.....

That completes the last of the Golus for this year... Lets see what the next year brings..... But my navaratri experiences are not over... Theres still more..

It has been a hectic day, with lots to write about, which is why this is just Part 1! Come back to read Part 2 tomorrow!