INTRO

Namaskarams All,
 I am Ganga Lakshmi Narayanan from Pittsburgh, USA.  I am happy to share my 24 year collection with you all.  What started as a small 3 step golu has evolved into one full room.  My 25 year old autistic son's work was incorporated the past two years but this year we took it as our challenge and worked the whole year to make his bits and pieces of artwork be a part of it.  We have six 300 piece puzzles that were his main activity that have been used in different background scenes.  My son's special friends created our return gift in their program, so they were all invited for our Golu.  So we made the theme of our Golu simple to show Where we are from and what the different sub sects of Hinduism are.  

We chose I am from Beautiful Tamil Nadu and depicted the four kinds of landscapes from the Sangam Literature.   Neidhal had a background painting with Lord Muruga, Thanjavur had rice fields with wooden peg dolls painted by my son as tiny field workers along with the big Shiva Linga representing Tanjore Temple and the Nayannars for Marudham.   Kurinji has Palani Temple with Kavadi and Mudumalai forest area representing Mullai.   Kurinji and  Marudham have a 300 piece puzzle as background and Mullai has his painting.


The Main five step Golu has Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi, Ashta Lakshmis, Dasavatharam and Chettiyar shop along with Marapaachi. This step represented Shaktam, Shakti worship.
Krishna and his Leela and Vishwaroopa darshana are represented in one section for Vaishnavam, Vishnu worship.
Shiva, Dakshinamoorthy and Nataraja represented in another section for Shaivam for Shiva worship.
One row of Ganeshas represented Ganapathyam for Ganesha worship.
My son's  100 piece puzzle of the Universe and Sun painting represented Sun worship.  This section included his first attempt on making dolls with legos and some dolls he had painted. 
We then have a Christmas village representing the Western Christmas time.
Lord Buddha is represented in a zen setting with another dessert 300 piece puzzle background.
One section has marriage and ear piercing ceremonies.
Another section has a pumpkin patch and a Western farm along with a park.  We also have baseball, basketball, football, soccer, bowling and a cricket set.  Pyramids are also represented.  The pumpkin patch has a 300 piece puzzle along with trees made with puzzles, and breakfast cereal fruit loops to represent the changing leaves.  Art work has been used in different places.  To help with eye hand coordination earbuds and cotton were used for tactile help.  Painter's tape was used to help my son paint inside the lines.  

Thank you for visiting my Golu. Happy Navaratri to All.