Never underestimate the power of dolls — the years I spent growing up in a woman-dominated Iyengar family have taught me that much. Come Navaratri and the oldest of grandmothers and the youngest of nieces got together to sweep the floor, arrange planks of wood and old cartons in steps, take out all the dolls of the house from their musty boxes and arrange them in colourful displays. This takes a lot of effort, planning and creativity, mind you. After all, the highlight of Navaratri is Bommai Kolu.

Simply put, Kolu — or Golu as it is called in some parts of South India — is a festival of dolls exclusively for women. They take the onus to arrange everything, and put the men out of business for nine days. The steps are set up in odd numbers, the maximum being 9. Then the dolls would be arranged priority-wise.

The top three steps are dedicated to various gods and goddesses. Most people place a purna kumbham, or vessel filled with rice, toor dal, turmeric sticks, betel leaves, nuts and mango leaves with a coconut placed on top —a symbol of auspicious beginnings — on the topmost step.

Geeta Gopalan, a retired lecturer who has been religiously keeping a Bommai Kolu in her house every Navaratri for the last 30 years, always uses a theme. “I have idols of Andaal and Krishna and I usually use themes depicting Krishna’s Raas Leela with his gopikaas, or of him stealing butter. Of course, every Iyengar house has an idol of a baby Krishna. Over the years, I have also tried to include themes of Rama’s Pattabhishekham — the time when Rama returns from exile to be crowned king again, Vaikuntam — where Lord Vishnu or Ranganath is reclining on his Seshashenai, surrounded by his bhaktars Hanuman, Garuda, etc. This year I have displayed a part of the Brahmotsavam — the Garudotsavam, where Lord Vishnu is taken on a procession aboard his vahana Garuda, led by an elephant, the seer of the temple and his goshti, an assortment of scholars reading the Vedas. Then there are popular themes like the Dashavataram, Ashtalakshmi — Lakshmi in all her eight forms, etc.

All of this is bound to take up a couple of steps, so the rest are used to depict day-to-day activities. “Displaying a wedding party is very common, you even get sets of the bride and groom, the vaadiyaar (priest) and the traditional band playing the naadaswaram and the mridangam from any store. One set dear to me is that of the temple utsavam (procession). Earlier, I used to even make a hillock using sand and place a tiny temple on top, but now I’m getting tired, so I keep it simple,” Geeta says.

According to tradition, when a daughter gets married, her parents gift her the Marapachi Bommai — dolls of a bride and groom made of a special wood that has medicinal value. The daughter then starts her own Kolu with the pair and collects more dolls over the years.

Now, with the lack of space, time and resources, it is very difficult to accommodate the whole pantheon of gods and every single kind of traditional scene. The focus is on the modern and easily-created. Don’t be surprised if you see a Barbie kitchen, bedroom, bath and office set in most Kolus. When you visit Geeta’s house, you can also find an entire miniature cooking set, a handful of animals and even a collection of car models. But nothing amuses her neighbours more than her Taatha-Paati (grandparents) set that is typical of the Thanjaavur Talaiyaatu Bommai style — give the old man and his wife a tap on their heads and they respond with the typical Indian nod, left to right, again and again.

The festivities don’t end there. The typical Bommai Kolu involves the children in management — young girls go to each neighbour’s house, inviting them to come and marvel at their handiwork. When a crowd forms, the women do an aarti of the Kolu, sing songs, sometimes even recite the Ramayana and the Lalita Sahasranaama, and then eat sundal usli — a mixture of different kinds of boiled and roasted pulses with coconut. “Every evening, the women of the neighbourhood gather here in front of the Kolu. We get to spend time talking to each other, gossiping too — it’s something that we wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise in our hectic lives,”  Geeta says, smiling. Geeta’s guests go home with a Bombe Bagina, a goodie bag that has a little packet of the usli and even some tiny salted chakli. “The concept is to make everything small, almost doll-like,” she says.

Don’t have the space to keep a Kolu, let alone invite the neighbours to drool over it?

No worries, just try a community Kolu, a concept that is catching on in most apartment blocks. Here, the women in the neighbourhood rally their forces and their dolls to create one massive Kolu. Think of the size, the dolls and the snacks!