Navratri Golu Ideas

• There are variety of themes available from traditional to modern world viz., on saints / devotees, Temples, village life, Mythological stories, Pilgrimage, Festivals, On specific deities, Go Green, Good Thoughts, Mountains, Rivers, Clay works, Wood Works, Art & Craft etc

• You can use idols, pictures or drawings / paintings by you or by your kids or a mixture of it to display the themes

• Use a light shaded background on steps etc so that it gives clarity to your display. White or off white is the best colour for this purpose.

• Instead of going for electric illumination go for Oil Lamps or Candles to give a classic effect

• You can hang a nice saree or netted shiney duppatta material available for decoration to decorate the centre background wall going to the two sides of the golu steps.

• You can let your kids make paper butterfly and stick it here n there. Involve them in decorative works as it will also keep them engaged and let them knowledge of the tradition & golue arrangement - a helping hand for you. 

• You can make kolams in thermacol or plastic plates for each day and keep on display.  Also discuss some topics on different types of kolams (dry flour, wet flour, spirals, dotted, geometrical, various types of rangoli etc).

• Flowers floating in water along with some candles also bring a beauty to your arrangement

• If you or your children has talents like singing, dancing, story telling etc you as a colony of people can come together and arrange functions by 8 pm to bring out their talents, award each kid. Light refreshments can be distributed between various families for each day thus bring equal participation & involvement.

• If you or your children know art & craft works. Let them teach it to those who are interested to learn (elders & kids). This will make the celebration more interesting.

• Play some light classical instrumentals in the background to lit up the ambience.

• Make sure you have one senior citizen from your neighbouhood (you can bring them together and plan for it) to be present everyday evening to tell mythological stories.

• Make yourself available or your kids to give a warm welcome to the guests. A smile & welcome makes the occasion inviting.

• Offering sacred things like chandan, kum kum be given to kids.

• Plan a evening celebration exclusively for :- (never forget to invite the those living in single in all the below celebration)

1. senior citizens
2. Kids
3. Wives
4. Husbands
5. Family get together

• Make sure every night after the traditional golu poojas & visiting hours you along with neighbours or your building / colony people come together & spend some quality time together. It strengthen the relationships. Moreover such celebrations will help you get introduced to any new comers in your colony / building. 

• If celebration happens as a community, together then expenses can be shared & joy increases. Binds the relationship & cultivate good habits & tradition to the young generation. 

Do check some more navratri / golu suggestions :-
 
Navratri / Golu


Navratri Preparation

Navratri Golu Ideas

 

Park - tips & suggestions

Wish you all a happy navratri.

Jai mata di

Burnt garlic, broccoli, carrot clear soup

In my soup series, making a post after a long time.  Burnt garlic gives a nice aroma to any dish. Clear soups are light appetizers which will make you enjoy your full course of meal. If you are aiming for weightloss go for plain soups (without cornflour) or clear soups.

Broccoli is rich in Vitamin C, dietary fibre and has cancer fighting properties. Any vegetable for that matter needs to be only partially cooked to retain its complete nutrients.

How to select:- selecting a good vegetable / fruit always help you get the maximum nutrients because after it is cultivated it takes days to reach our hands which results in loss of nutrients. Here are few points that you should note while buying

1. Should be dark green in colour
2. No yellow flowers should be there
3. florets should be thick (applies to cauliflower too)
4. The stems should be strong & not tender (shows how fresh it is)

Ingredients  :- (servings :2)

1. Garlic pods - 2 nos
2. Broccoli florets - 1/2 cup
3. Carrot cubes - 1/4 cup
4. Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
5. White pepper powder -1 pinch
6. Water - 3 cups
7. Salt to taste
8. Corn flour - 2 tsp
9. Olive oil - 2 tsp
10. Spring onion - 2 tbsp
11. Spring onion greens - 1 tsp

Procedure :-

• Blanch brocolli and carrot in hot water for 10 minutes or Microwave it for 4 minutes
• Finely chop the garlic pods, spring onion and spring onion greens.
• Heat  olive oil and add the chopped garlic. Fry till it is golden brown. 
• Add spring onion and saute for a minute on low flame.
• Add the cooked veggies and saute for 2 minutes
• Add 3 cups of water, chilli sauce, salt to taste and bring to boil
• dissolve corn flour in water and add it to the boiling soup and boil for 3 minutes
• Serve hot sprinkling white pepper powder & spring onion greens

PS : If you don't have chilli sauce, you can chop green chillies and add while saute' ing vegetables.

Embossed Warli Painting -1

Made an embossed warli painting recently and was waiting for it to get framed. So it finally reached my hands yesterday night and here it is for your eyes :-) Its my first attempt using embossing method. Idea borrowed from a craft programme telecasted on a TV show very long back. Remembered it one day so decided to try.

Embossed not in metal but in paper. Yes it is easy to make.

You will need :-

1. Catridge (paper to paint)
2. Fabric glue
3. Acrylic colours (Black, burnt sienna, brown)
4. Gold colour
5. Thin brush
6. Flat brush
7. Toothpick

Procedure :-

• On the catridge, draw any warli design of your choice. In this painting I drew a tree, birds, people watering the tree.

• Fill the figures with fabric glue. For the tree bark effect, once the glue is semi dry, using a toothpick scratch the tree to get the bark texture. Let it dry for a day.

First apply a coat of diluted burnt sienna all over using up & down strokes only. No horizontal or criss cross strokes. Use a flat brush for this purpose. Hope the picture below will give you an idea of how it is done.

• Over this using brown colour - dry brush stroke, apply on the edges downwards, this will give a dark edge and bright centre. Let it dry.

• Using black colour & thin brush, make edgings in the tree where you need highlight

• Using gold paint, paint the embossed figure leaving the black highlight. Let it dry and then get it framed.

Tilak Nagar Ganapati, Sept 2012

Yesterday we travelled 50km one way to attend a house warming ceremony. We were travelling home bound by 11.30 p.m. when Ganapati Bapa blessed me by drawing towards the celebrations happening on the Community Hall of Tilak Nagar, Chembur. 

Flower decoration which caught my attention :-

A fairy tale Chariot model at the entrance which gives a quick idea of how the amusement world is going to be inside the mandap. Children looked cheerful seeing this chariot and the fairy tale house like structure made covering the community hall of tilak nagar and making them more excited to see their favourite characters coming live inside.......

I never ever imagined that I could get a nice darshan of the Lord there.  Tilak Nagar Ganapati is one of the Mumbai's famous ganapati mandal aka Maharashtra Ganapati of Shiv Sena. The Lord is seated majestically in an airconditioned mandap surrounded by whole lot of cartoon characters. 

After crossing the main entrance to the mandap here is how the path looks like..... Bees welcoming the cheerful children and adults.

Yes, this year's festival is known as 'sahyadri' and the theme is 'sahyadri Kid's world'. So there were lot of children who also patiently stood in the queue along with their parents all through the night to catch a glimpse of their favourite fantasy characters and Lord Ganapati. The queue was huge. Luckily with the help of a known face who is also a member of the mandal i could by pass and enter the middle of the queue (isn't ganapati bapa so loving making it easy for me to have a quick darshan of him?)

Lion King

Mermaid & sea horses, Penguins with waterfall in the background

Chota Bheem....

The famous Doraemon

A fariy tale model

Wait makes sweet things even more sugary. So here is our famous & majestic Tilak Nagar Ganapati Bapa.

Due to the weekend rush, there was a typical chaos which you commonly see in big temples. The Police & Security personnel were more into crowd management and shouting 'Pude chalo' in Marathi like the Tirupati 'Jarugu'

So with a content heart happily started our homebound journey ............

Ganapati Bapa moriya, Mangal Murti Moriya!