Celebrating Navratri with kollu sundal in Chennai of yore

Festival celebration has not the same fervour as it had 60 years ago. During childhood, we used to look forward to Diwali, Navratri and Janmashtami with impatience and many expectations. While Diwali and Janmashtami used to be single-day events, Navratri’s nine-day-long celebrations were most awaited.

A day before the festival, a special wooden trunk used to be taken out of the attic. Stacked carefully inside the trunk were figurines rolled up in old newspapers, emerging from their year-long hibernation.

A staircase-like wooden structure would be built against a wall of the living room to display these for the Navratri. My grandmother would decide the order in which these figurines were to be displayed. She only allowed statuettes of gods and goddesses for the display. Once when my father attempted to place busts of Gandhi, Nehru, etc, alongside, he wasn’t allowed to.

A whole tableau, including a hill with waterfall, a tiny rainbow, used to be created for the festival.

A special dish called kollu sundal, prepared specially during Navratri, would be served to visitors, especially children. The kids would visit every house to review the display and also to taste the sundal. During one such visit, we were even asked to rate the display as well as the sundal. Aunty had kept a visitor’s book for everyone to give ratings.

Nowadays children are losing interest in celebrating festivals perhaps because they are growing up too fast. I just wish that children should be allowed to enjoy both their childhood and festivals.

 Sandhya Anand, Chennai