Your Navratri Celebrations in Pictures! - Contest for the Month of Oct'08

Dear Ananthalakshmi,

Very nice imagination! By any chance, is your mom's name Vanaja?
We had a relative in Madurai named Vanaja who used to keep a very creative Golu like yours every year, her daughter's name is also Ananthalakashmi(called Bubbly at home). Was wondering whether you are the same person!

-Mathangi

 

The Grand Finale!

Dear Friends,
Based in Chennai, last month, I was visiting many Golus, in friends’ and relatives’ houses. But, the virtual visit to the ILites' Kolus in this thread, has been a veritable feast to the eyes. I did not have to travel all the way to Dubai or the US, leave alone our own Hyderabad and Bangalore, among other local ones.

The enjoyment part came to a halt when Induslady wanted me to be the judge in selecting a winner in the contest. Suddenly, I had to review them on a competitive basis, which was far from a pleasant job to me. Well, I did take the help of a couple of ILites, each not knowing who the other was. Then I made out a list of the judgements of all three of us.
Here, I go, friends:

USHA KRISHNAN
emerges the unanimous winner. Her kolu was “woven” around the Guruvayurappan Concept in a novel, but divine way. The exquisite miniature creation of Dubal City was mesmerising and fabulous, to put it mildly.

Sowminivibu
comes second, ofcourse only after giving a tough competition to Usha.
The depiction of Navarathri as a festival of dance, music, fun and socialising is very apt.
Her kolu was neat and nice looking with a great backdrop.

We three, as a group cannot help mentioning the following kolus:

Shobi (Shobana Balaji)'s Golu looks "rocking" in one go. Their efforts in creating Kutralam(which normally no one attempts) is simply breath-taking; creating Geetopadesam using wood is fabulous, and beautifully draped Amman is splendid and all shows the amount of time they must have spent in creating this!!
Innovative! It is a Piece de resistence.

AnanthaLakshmi's Golu had a lot of hand-crafted stuff like Saree store, vegatable carving, rangoli and many others which brings out the talent of a person using Navarthri as platform to exhibit it!

Dhanyaganesh- The main Golu display was neat and simple. Her theme depicting the fourth Incarnation of Sri Mahavishnu as Narasimha Avatharam was wonderful and showcased her creativity.

Friends, I admit frankly, it was a difficult job to evaluate because every kolu showed the hours of planning and hard work that had gone in.
This has been an intense competition of equals. I can only sum it up in the lines of the famous saying 'All are equal but some are more equal than others!'

The announcement about the follows!

Also, don't forget to check out this post about IL gifts!

Love,
Chithra.

 

Usha,
Congrats on winning the Kolu contest...

congrats Sowmini, shobi, ananthalakshmi, dhanyaganesh..for giving tough competition to the contestants and judges...

Congrats all of you who had participated in this contest..

sriniiketan

 

Dear Laxmi,
I feel immensely delighted and am lost for words.. Thank you Indusladies once again for giving me this opportunity.
I have sent you my address in India by pm.

Regards
USHA

 

Thank you IL!!! :thankyou2: Chithra Aunty and all other judges! You really make us feel great! :queen The gift looks beautiful ... thanks again!!!

Congrats Sowmini Akka, Shobana Ma'am, Ananthalakshmi Ma'am and Dhanya Ma'am!!!:biggrin2:

arty​

 

DEAR USHAKRISHNAN
My heartiest Congratulation to you and your Family.clap:thumbsup
wishes,
visalamkrishnan

 

Dear Sowmivibu, Shobi, Dhanyaganesh, Ananthalakshmi,
congratulation to you all.
wishes,
visalamkrishnan

 

Congratulations to all the winners of the Kolu contest.

It was only today that I glanced through all the pages wondering in amazement at the work of art in each and everyone's home here.
Some were elaborate and some small and simple. But one thing that shone clearly was how this festival of Navarathri brings out not only the bhakti, but also the child in everyone of us.
Enjoyed immensely and plan to spend more time here to read all the inputs and gaze at the amazing work of art by all of you contributors.
Great going! thumbsup:thumbsup

L, Kamla