Keeping age-old traditions alive, a Chennai resident has decorated her house with hundreds of 'Bommai Golu' dolls, depicting myriad themes like social media, agrarian lifestyle and mythology.
Nandini Venkatesh has been decorating her house with these dolls for nine years as part of Navratri celebrations.
As per Southern Indian legends, Navratri celebrations are incomplete without 'Golu' dolls. These dolls, decorated with numerous colours, depict the age-old tradition of celebrating the festival by displaying an event from the mythological stories.
Venkatesh, a resident of Nollambur, Chennai has been putting efforts to spread awareness about several pressing issues by setting up theme-based 'Golu' dolls at her house every Navratri.
"I have been keeping Golu dolls at my house for nine years. My house is known for keeping and decorating it with Golu dolls, depicting several themes. This year we have kept dolls that depict nine different themes. So far, around 3,000-4,000 people have visited our house. I have kept these dolls, especially for kids so that they learn through these things. I believe that children should be brought up in a culture-based environment," said Venkatesh.
Venkatesh's passion is evident from the minute someone enters her house. A five to six-step set up has been decked up with various colourful Golu dolls.
"I have also kept Golu dolls that depict ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 theme. I believe it is an exciting way in which children would be able to learn new things and gain knowledge. The Chandrayaan-2 theme is to salute ISRO chief, K Sivan and I have also kept his doll as a part of this theme. Other themes include water scarcity. As we all know that Chennai is facing the biggest crisis of scarcity of water, keeping this in mind I have decorated a scenario where Lord Ganesha himself is very sad after seeing drying water tanks," she added.
The theme-wise set up of the dolls took two consecutive days, even with five people being dedicated towards the task.
"We started thinking about the concepts and themes around five months ago and accordingly we told the artists who design these dolls, to create the Golus as per the themes," said Venkatesh.
The visitors felt delighted to see the unique theme-based Golu dolls set up at Venkatesh's house and have been visiting her home regularly.
"I have not seen such unique Golu dolls anywhere. I feel so happy to come here and see the theme-based set-up. These dolls depict a huge variety of Indian culture and heritage," said a visitor.
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