INTRO

Happy Navratri!
Every year, we have a grand doll display during Navratri with multiple themes as well as the traditional 9-step doll display (Golu padi).
This year’s themes are as follows:
1.Mysuru:
The City of Mysuru with its grand Dasara procession starting from Mysuru palace up to Banni mantapa where it culminates.
We also showed the major landmarks of Mysuru such as Chamundi hills with Mahishasura and Nandi, Mysuru zoo, Mysuru palace, Wadiyar circle, St. Philomena’s Cathedral, Banni mantapa and Mandakalli Airport. Chamundi hills & airport were handmade.
2.Srirangapatna & Ranganathittu
Srirangapatna is another famous historic town which derives its name from the famous Sri Ranganatha swamy temple. It was the capitol of Mysore under the rule of Hyder Ali and Tipu sultan. We tried to show Daria Daulat Bagh which was the summer palace of Tipu Sultan, Anglo-Mysore war (4th) between Tipu and East India company, Sri Ranganatha swamy Temple with its associated Kalyani & the village of Srirangapatna.
As part of the same theme, we showed Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary which is famously known as Pakshi Kashi of Karnataka. It is 3 km from Srirangapatna. It is It is an island surrounded by Kaveri River. There are boat tours around the island to facilitate bird and crocodile watching.
3.Dolls from around the world
Dolls with traditional costumes from different parts of the world and US was displayed in this theme.
4.Yellow Stone Kailasa
The main theme for this year was Yellow stone Kailasa. This was the brain child of my wild imagination. God is everywhere. I tried to show the concept of ‘East meets the West’ by creating Kailasa and Shiva purana in and around major attractions of Yellow Stone national park. It is a nearly 3,500-sq.-mile wilderness atop a volcanic hot spot extending into 3 states (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho). It features dramatic canyons, yellow stone river, lush forests, hot springs and gushing geysers.
All the real-time Yellow stone attractions like various hot springs, old faithful geyser, morning glory pool, Grand prismatic spring, forests and rivers, artist point & Mammoth hot spring were hand made with at most attention to detail
I hand painted different pictures of hot springs to show case Girivalam Ashtalingam.
Nataraja was shown dancing in front of the famous Old faithful geyser along with other Shiva ganas.
Shiva was seen in morning glory pool as adi-guru preaching saptha gurus.
I also tried to show a destination wedding atop Grand Prismatic spring of Shiva with Meenakshi (Meenakshi Kalyani). Other Shiva purana stories were also shown in this theme such as lord Rama praying to Shiva after killing Ravana who is a brahmin, Parvathi as peahen story & Bedara kannappa story & Shiva giving Pashupatastra to Arjuna in Yellow stone’s artist point, and Kailasa in Mammoth hot spring.
I showed the transition into different seasons in Yellowstone horizontally across– Spring, Fall, summer and winter. For example, Shiva as Shmashanadipathi was shown in summer season of yellow stone with dead twigs and cacti. Kailasa was created in Mammoth hot springs which looks very serene like mount Kailash in winter.
Vertically down, I created a transition between devaloka and buloka. Animals/wild life seen in Yellow stone were shown in different areas of the park to give a realistic feel of this beautiful national forest.