Am back to writing about Dasara again.
In continuation with my previous year post - http://my-happy-notes.blogspot.in/2012/10/dasara.html, Dasara is a festival that is celebrated for many reasons. A month ago, someone told me that there is a dolls exhibition near my home. I went to see the exhibition with a thought to buy one or two dolls, and the first thing that caught my eye was "Krishna" idol. And that moment I decided that the theme for this year Dasara was going to be Krishna - since we have our own little Krishna at home now :)
I bought a few Krishna related idols, to make a small story about Krishna's birth, childhood and youth. The venue of my dolls also changed this time. I arranged everything in our living room upstairs. I had 3 main steps, and the rest of the dolls were spread across the hall. I used tables of different sizes and cardboard boxes and covered everything in white cloth.
The first step had the main God and Goddess - Vishnu and Lakshmi. One side had all other Gods - Rama-Seetha-Laxmana-Hanuman, Durga, Chamundeshwari, Ganesha, Shiva, Sai Baba. The other side had the Mysore Dasara procession with elephants and soldiers.
2nd and 3rd steps were Krishna. The story starts with Krishna being born in the jail in Mathura, and Vasudeva carrying Krishna across the river with the snake protecting Krishna with its hood like an umbrella to Gokula. 2nd step was Gokula - where I had kept Krishna in a cradle, benne Krishna (Krishna and butter), Krishna playing flute sitting on the tree while the village ladies carried curds and butter crossing the forest, Yashoda removing butter from curds, many ambegalu (crawling) Krishna.
The 3rd step was Vrindavana - the whole village moves from Gokula to Vrindavana due to Kamsa. Here Krishna is slightly older. I had Rasa Leela - Krishna playing with gopikas (village girls), Kalinga Mardhana (Krishna dancing on the snake called kalinga and finally killing it), Krishna with Radha, Krishna with cows.
The 3rd step was Vrindavana - the whole village moves from Gokula to Vrindavana due to Kamsa. Here Krishna is slightly older. I had Rasa Leela - Krishna playing with gopikas (village girls), Kalinga Mardhana (Krishna dancing on the snake called kalinga and finally killing it), Krishna with Radha, Krishna with cows.
I had few other Krishna idols from different places/temples set-up on another small table. A huge Radha-Krishna idol on the side, and the famous "Bhagawadgeeta" - Krishna advising Arjuna on the chariot just before the start of Mahabharata war - made from thermocol and cardboard by my grandad when he was around 94 years (now he is 100 years) :)
There was Chamundi hills next to the Mysore Dasara procession - a temple, purohit, a fruit vendor next to the temple, shetty and his wife selling fruits/vegetables in front of the temple, an elephant and a snake.
A Rajasthani man and lady on a Rajasthani elephant table, Rajasthani musicians which we got from our visit to Rajasthan a few years ago.
Of course there had to be a table with our global curios. It was good to remember all the places we had visited.
One corner had a zoo, an indoor setting with fan/ bathtub/ dining table, a park where people were strolling, kids playing and a road behind the park. One new addition that my friend's daughter gave was a lady selling vegetables in a cart. It is a lovely piece, thanks Amulya :)
That completes my Dasara this year. I am thinking of adding one story to the Krishna theme every year :)
I LOVE DASARA. Had a great time planning, arranging, meeting family/friends and mainly felt at peace getting up at 5am and doing pooja daily :)
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| Watching the Dasara gombe :) |
