Reminiscing Navaratri

Navaratri, which means nine nights in Sanskrit, is a Hindu festival of worship and dance. The nine days are devoted to the worship of the Supreme Goddess. This culminates on the tenth day with Vijayadashami or Dassera. This year Dassera will fall on October 2, 2006. For more information please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navaratri

This morning I was recollecting how I spent Navaratri as a little girl. Typically Garba and Dandiya Raas, originating from Gujarat are associated with Navaratri, which I might add are pretty well known. I thought I might write about how Maharashtrians celebrate Navaratri. My sisters and I grew up in a fairly cosmopolitan environment and therefore had friends who weren’t of the same faith or even the same community as us. My mother however used to organize “Bhondala” for all our friends to teach us, her daughters, about our own Maharashtrian culture.

My mother would make some interesting sweets and snacks for us. Each girl got along with her a sweet or snack made by her mother. So it was like a potluck party. An elephant was drawn at the center using rice flour and we held hands and formed a circle around it. We would perform a semi-dance around the circle singing the customary songs. Of course then we would lose our enthusiasm and sing other popular songs. The evening would culminate with regaling each other with stories and childish gossips from school, not to mention wicked impressions of our teachers! There are nine songs for the nine days. The other Maharashtrian families in our neighborhood would invite us on the remaining days. The fun part of this was that there were no divisive factors like religion, community etc. Our non-Hindu friends would celebrate with us.

I was trying to recollect the songs but couldn’t remember all of them. I did a Google search and found a website devoted to those songs. The URL is http://www.onesmartclick.com/marathi/marathi-gani-bhondla.html .

I also remember “kumarika poojan,” which means basically worshipping the aspect of Goddess Durga in young (prepubescent) girls. One of my mother’s friends would invite my sisters and me and her little nieces. I am not sure if these customs are still prevalent in Maharashtra.

I was doing online research and came upon this webpage, http://www.4to40.com/discoverindia/music/index.asp?article=discoverindia_music_peninsularsouth , which described the folk music and dances pertaining to the Deccan region.

Since Navaratri always clashed with my mid- term exams I have absolutely no memories associated with it during my later school and college years. I do however remember my dear friend from architecture school who was a complete Dandiya Raas fiend. It didn’t matter to her that she had deadlines for assignments or even exams; she never missed going every night for Dandiya. Despite that she still managed to excel in school! Goddess Durga sure loved her a lot!

Saturday is Ashtami (eight day of Navaratri), which is very special to me. My nephew, who is the apple of my eye, was born on that day thirteen years ago. As per the Hindu calendar he will be thirteen this Saturday. I am sure he reads my blog therefore here is wishing him a very Happy Birthday!