Thursday, September 22, 2022

Masterji

Please do read my earlier posts on Navarathri Golu.

Harini's Paatti - I met her last in October 2019, if I remember right. Maama (her husband) had passed away, her son and family had moved to UK. She was living alone in Mumbai. Have been trying to contact her with her mobile number and it seems to be switched off. 

Bommaigalil Oru Blooper

Dasavatharam

Chittie

Golu 2012

Bead Work

Golu 2008


Golu
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If there's one thing I would've loved to carry from Madras from parents' place , it was the lot of Golu Bommais we had, which featured in the 11-padi Navarathri year after year. We had a band set, two cute babies with hands on their chins, Dasavatharam amongst many others. Over the years, most got broken and now I wish I had helped maintain them doing the bare minimum of wrapping them in newspaper before storing them back.

Navarathri Golu back home was a grand affair with a stream of visitors morning and evening, for 9 days. The brunch was grand and the Sundal, grander. There were no dearth of saree gifts for my mother as she was a VIP guest at friends' and family Golus. Hip families used to send printed card invites for Navarathri Golu. And Amma would look forward to a certain 'Ezhaikketha Yelakkai' family invite at Santhome. 

At the end of 9 days, the house was flooded with return gifts including plastic koodais, tiffin dabbas and ofcourse blouse bits. Nothing was discarded. At best recycled, may be when Amma fell short of her return gifts for our home guests.

Post mid 90s, the 11 padi became one padi in the ground floor for convenience's sake. There were very few bommais but the grand brunch and Sundal continued. From the few lot of Bommais that survived, I managed to bring a few. The only clay bommai is this Masterji. It was one of the easier ones to carry from Madras and thus it's survived with me for the last two decades. 



It's funny how something as small as a one foot bommai can trigger so many beautiful memories. As I type this, I can still smell 'Pattu' maami's fantastic payasam and the Friday Puttus

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