Saturday, October 04, 2008

Harini's paatti

Amma and I met this young lady with her kid , some five years ago at a departmental store while waiting at the bill counter. The li'l one - Harini got friendly with Amma instantly. With Amma's vairathodu and the lady's metti, the Tamizh bonding and tamizh talk started. We were invited to her place.

Harini, the li'l one lived with her parents and thaatha, paatti. Harini's paatti's big pottu, vaira-thodu and mookkutti reminded me of my dad's aunt Janaki chitti. Paatti, in her early 70s is great with art work. Be it glass painting, fabric painting, doll making- she is fantastic at the craft.

Harini and her parents moved to UK a few years ago and paatti invites me for Navarathri golu and Varalakshmi nonbu every year, without fail. Her Amman alangaram during nonbu is a delight to watch . For Navarathri golu, every year, she paints all her dolls to give them a fresh look, adds new dolls to her collection and thaatha helps her set up the serial lights and the padis.

I wonder how paatti and thaatha manage such a beautiful Navarathri golu despite paatti's knee ache and thaatha's age. For Navarathri, thaatha travels all the way to Matunga by train to buy coconuts, vettalai, pakku etc. I have never met such a Navarathri enthu couple in my life!

This year paatti had added lots of new bommais , a cute Christmas tree and Santa claus from the UK. She was disappointed that she couldn't find a mosque and idols of Muslim men praying in front of the mosque. I have promised that I'd help her find the same. Do email me blogeswari(AT)gmail(DOT)com if you know of any place in Mumbai where I can get them.


Here are a few pictures from Harini's paati's golu.


(L to R )
Row 1: Amman, Marapachi, Lady Marapachi

Row 2: Lady marapachi's thalai alangaram (check out the beads), Small amman decorated as Goddess Saraswathi, Gnana Sambandhar & Manickavasagar

Row 3: Appar sundarar, Handmade fabric art, fabric art framed

5 Responses:

Dilip Muralidaran said...

Lovely too see that marapachchi bommai in your stream. Reminds me of old days. What fun!

umm oviya said...

how sweet... will def look out for some stuff for her.

SoulSpace said...

I too wonder at that kind of enthu in your old age. They are a delite, I mean such old people.
Very inspiring, esp. such tamil dolls, rare too...so know I know what to look out for my collection...lovely snaps

Artnavy said...

how beautiful and what enthu!!

maithriim said...

Amazing story! Convey my respects to them :-)

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