Kolu, an integral part of Navaratri, the nine-day festival dedicated to Goddesses Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswathi, has enlivened residences and public spaces in the city. Hotels, temples, schools, and even office complexes have reserved special areas for putting up the displays of deities and figurines on tiered shelves as part of the ongoing festival.

A vast spread of over 1,000 statuettes, idols, and miniature toys has been carefully arranged on two floors at the Srirangam home of the Gopalakrishnans this year, with the Kumbh Mela as this year’s thematic highlight of the Kolu display.

“Preparing the display brings our entire family together as we need to spend time on unpacking and shortlisting the dolls to be used each year. We have prepared a brief quiz on the Kumbh Mela exhibit to help visitors find out more about the event,” Indumathi Girish, told The Hindu.

Ms. Girish and her mother-in-law Sudha Gopalakrishnan have collaborated to come up with detailed displays of various legends from the epics this year. “Our ‘choppu saaman’ display contains souvenirs from around the world as our relatives have added to our collection over the years,” said Ms. Gopalakrishnan as she showed two miniature brass peacocks from Pakistan and an array of kettles and teapots from the U.K.

Life in a village as the theme at the residence of Poornima Murali’s kolu in Srirangam.
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Organising Kolu makes people more aware of their religious customs and traditions, said Poornima Murali. “We try and honour the different aspects of life through our displays. Every year, I add a small replica of our office building to our Kolu collection. We have got a separate area to showcase life in a village this year, besides other themes to keep visitors engaged,” she said.

Traditional dolls arranged neatly at the Kolu of Usha Sankaran at Edamalaipatti Pudur in Tiruchi.
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At the Ramalinga Nagar home of the DSM family, S. Usha Sankaran and her daughters-in-law Padmini Venkat and Deepa Manikand have spent weeks putting together a colourful Kolu display on the ground floor.

“We have downsized our Kolu this year and tried to set up different areas of interest, especially for children. This year has been dedicated to the Marina Beach; earlier we have tried recreating the sights of Hong Kong, and popular TV shows such as Bigg Boss. We even had a replica of Rajnikanth from the film Enthiran. Creating artworks and compiling sets of dolls to go with the displays is the most enjoyable part of Kolu,” said Ms. Sankaran.

Besides this, a detailed depiction of a day of worship at the Lord Venkateswara temple at Tirumala forms the highlight of the family’s Kolu display.

P. Rukmini with her Kolu display at her home in Edamalaipatti Pudur in Tiruchi.
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P. Rukmini, 78, and her family take pride in their collection of vintage dolls and idols that are displayed in their apartment at Edamalaipatti Pudur this Navaratri. “When I was a child growing up in Lalgudi, it was customary to send out formal invitations to friends and neighbours for viewing the Kolu displays. Nowadays we welcome anyone interested in seeing our Kolu display. The tradition helps us pass down our knowledge to the next generations,” said Ms. Rukmini.