Golu, also known as Kolu or Bommai Golu – the “festival of dolls” – has come to Chennai. Golu is celebrated during the festival of Navratri in southern India. I find the background of the festival confusing, not knowing many of the stories relating to Hinduism, but the festival manifests itself in southern India in the form of doll displays for women and girls – with other traditions of course. Consequently, however, the streets are filled with entrepreneurs selling a wide array of dolls to be displayed in the home. Which means one thing for us: time for another photowalk!
We visited the streets surrounding the Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore, a section of town just north of us. These streets are normally very active to begin with, and the doll salespeople took the buzz to a whole new level. [It was also our first night photowalk, and we had a fascinating visit to the temple itself – but that will be a different post.]
Here are a few shots showing what the streets were like:
Above, some of our fellow photowalkers try their hand at haggling for a better price.
This little fella was bored – he was just sitting there making silly faces nonstop! Below, more haggling:
To see more Golu-related photos on Flickr, check out this group.
And to read a blog post by someone who understands the holiday and its traditions much better than I, check out this link.
One Response to Chennai Photowalk: In Search of Golu