#27: Navarathiri
Dear Reader,
Hello! I know quite well that it’s been a while. I haven’t been accustomed to typing my thoughts away ever since I fearfully entered the Final Year of Medicine. I’m not going to lie, there’s been more than a couple of instances when I’ve wanted to put out another issue of my newsletter but those thoughts failed to get converted into actions because I was just plain exhausted. I haven’t been feeling like myself lately, there’s just one too many tasks to finish, concepts to grasp, texts to understand and imbibe - you can go ahead and label me a zombie (the increasing intensity of my dark circles don’t seem to help my cause).
Navarathiri for the past two years didn’t pique my interest mainly due to the fact that Covid and that pandemic era laziness in me was rampant. But this time, I decided to turn things around extremely last minute, like I always do. I’ve always had a soft spot for this festival, primarily because there is now a valid reason to meet people - I don’t have to feel guilty for skipping out on a date with my textbooks! Okay I’m kidding, but the sweets, the Golu hopping from one house to the next and all the dressing up is a much needed sanctum for me.
It was the night before Navarathiri started - the hall was strewn with Golu bommais, waiting to be arranged in a manner that was pleasing to the eye. Gifts for the guests were yet to be bought - everything was in a state of chaos. My mother and I rushed into the threshold of the Kalakshetra Market, made a quick round scanning all the stalls and then started our shopping spree. An hour later, with our hands filled with bags of all sizes, and wallets nearly empty, I realized that we had altogether forgotten the boys’ gifts. We bolted to a stand selling a bunch of Kalamkari wallets and while transferring the money via Google Pay, the transaction was taking longer than expected to go through. We impatiently waited for about ten minutes - the money still wasn’t getting transferred. We decided to tap into that little bit of faith we have in humanity and paid the shop owner in cash, telling him to pay us back if the Google Pay transaction went through. “Tension math lo madam, I will pay you back” he said, as we left the market. At the end of all this drama, the transaction failed.
We made it home around nine in the night, and there still were a multitude of tasks to be completed. The dolls still hadn’t been set up! Within a few hours, I had moved them around a couple of times until I was satisfied. We brought down a few figurines my family had collected from various travels and voila, that completed the Golu! Most of the Golu dolls at my house are decades old - my favourite being the Rama-Seetha Kalyanam set where a bit of Seetha’s arm would come off and every year I would reattach it! This year we could only keep three steps, but it was a cute Golu nonetheless.
These past ten days have been extremely exhausting - I have sufficiently made up for that part of my social life lost during Covid, and it feels good to be drained for any reason other than fateful final year. This is the one time of the year where I meet some friends and family whom I otherwise don’t get the chance or the time to meet and it is refreshing to just sit down and catch up. From Golu hopping from one friend’s place to another while lugging around gift bags, to just having to forget about the mountain of work I have which is increasing at an alarming pace, my heart felt happy.
A myriad of conversations, a handful of sweets and a number of photos later, these gratifying ten days of solace have ended and I can feel my textbooks reaching out, waiting for its pages to be turned.
Links you’ll love
Your smartphone can actually help improve your memory - I was a bit sceptical reading this, but it sounds promising.
Check out this show called Severance where these office workers’ memories have been surgically split between their work and personal lives - thrilling to say the least.
Rediscovered this song while carpooling to college!
Stories of the True review: Jeyamohan now moves us in English - Shoutout to my cousin Priya who translated this book in English rather beautifully!
Until next time,
— adithi.
You penned all my feelings about golu this year! I am sure many felt the same. What a wonderful 10 days we all had, after 3 years of the pandemic. And yup, time to go to work:(
Good to see you back, Adithi. The Final MBBS year can be quite frantic. When I was in medical college (during the age of the dinosaurs) the term "Final Year MBBS" always evoked the response of "How are you so sure it's final?' Still, you need to maintain your connections to the gigantic, wonderous, non-MBBS world outside of the college. Writing, is a good way; and, as all successful writers will tell you, write often. Cheers.