{"id":1005,"date":"2007-10-15T22:07:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-15T16:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/archives\/1005"},"modified":"2007-10-15T22:07:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-15T16:37:00","slug":"golu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/golu\/","title":{"rendered":"Golu"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mom always rued the fact that she did not have a girl child during Dassara. She thought if she had had a daughter, we could have had a Golu like all other poor Brahmin families (display of clay dolls mostly… of gods and their rides.) <\/p>\n

Suren and I were primarily interested in visiting every damn house in Greamspet during Golu time. We came back with a lot of Sundal (baked, spiced peas seasoned with mustard seeds.) The Chetty homes made the best Sundal. They added tiny slices of Mango and grated Coconut in it. We ate so much Sundal that we farted perennially. Preeen! Puf! Plift! And, if when we got lucky “Bbbrrrooommmm!” But the deadliest of them all had no sound. It is the muted killer. Nisabdham, Praana Sankatam! <\/p>\n

I guess when I was in Fourth class, mom decided to have a Golu. Daughter or not. If you are wondering why a mother with no daughters can’t have a Golu… Well, the tradition is that the women invited each other to their respective Golus and gifted each other blouse bits along with Vermilion, Yellow Banana, and Beetel leaves. It is totally a girl thing. Anyway, that year we went shopping for dolls and bought lots of them. We dug some earth and sowed Ragi seeds. When they sprouted, we planted the farmer and his bulls on a ploughshare. It was a pretty neat idea. We also planned to decorate the Golu on the wooden display rack with serial lights but mom dumped the idea. I had just started playing with electricity and I was blowing the fuse at consistent intervals. <\/p>\n

Mom warned us that we couldn’t afford to unleash the muted killer farts and chase our guests away. So no Sundal in our own home for me and Suren. Mom’s Golu was a smash hit. My dad burnt a few hundred Rupees grudgingly. We gave away a lot of blouse bits that time. We moved to Chennai next year and forget a Golu, we didn’t have space for ourselves in our Chennai home. And of course the landlord banned Golus. He thought it was some sort of a Pagan routine. May he rot in hell. So the memory of Golu faded away. We grew up into handsome young men. Ok, I won’t push it. We grew up and got busy with the vicissitudes of life. We got girls. We married. And now I have a feeling Suren’s going to have a Golu next year. And guess what I am going to do next year? Yeah! You guessed it. Muted Killers at Suren’s. Here we come!<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mom always rued the fact that she did not have a girl child during Dassara. She thought if she had had a daughter, we could have had a Golu like all other poor Brahmin families (display of clay dolls mostly… of gods and their rides.) Suren and I were primarily interested in visiting every damn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-anecdotes","tag-slice-of-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Mom always rued the fact that she did not have a girl child during Dassara. She thought if she had had a daughter, we could have had a Golu like all other poor Brahmin families (display of clay dolls mostly… of gods and their rides.) Suren and I were primarily interested in visiting every damn…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2Gbk8-golu","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1580,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/hate-sachin\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":0},"title":"I Hate Sachin","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"December 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"An edited version of this story appears in ESPNcricinfo 1989. \"Yaaru pethha puallayo! Punyam panna vairu!\" my late granny remarked upon hearing about Sachin's debut and subsequent exploits. She looked at her sons (my uncles) and said \"Yenakkum vandhu porandhudhu paaru!\" She was paying a glowing tribute to Sachin Tendulkar's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cricket"","block_context":{"text":"cricket","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/cricket\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1468,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/rosy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":1},"title":"Rosy","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"She waited to die in his lap. She waited for three whole weeks. And when my father returned to find that he didn't get his usual welcome at the door, I saw his eyes well up with tears. I knew something had changed in my home forever. We would never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chennai"","block_context":{"text":"chennai","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/chennai\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/rosy.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":713,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/05\/punishment-for-rape-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":2},"title":"Punishment for rape: Marriage!","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"May 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Ward boy who raped, blinded nurse says he will marry her - Judge calls victim for reply - Outrage, say experts, it\u2019s desperate bid to get away.The application, submitted today through Bhura\u2019s counsel, Mukesh Ahuja, said: \"...To save the life of the victim as well as the lives of both\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/04\/psycho-mom-denver-blues-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":3},"title":"Psycho Mom: Denver Blues Part-2","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"(Please read the Part-1 Denver Fever if you haven't already) We went to the Denver Zoo some where in the afternoon. A Polar bear cub stole my heart there: it would pick up its toy - a huge plastic can - and throw it in the pond. And would dive\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1561,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/jet-lag\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":4},"title":"Mr. Chari’s First Flight","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"September 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Did you try Tatkal?\" He said. For the 476th time. I wished I could explain to him. How making our PM speak was a possibility as compared to getting a Tatkal ticket on IRCTC. About how I woke up for the first time in years at 6:30 A.M and was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bangalore"","block_context":{"text":"bangalore","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/bangalore\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1032,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/oh-priyanka\/","url_meta":{"origin":1005,"position":5},"title":"Oh Priyanka!","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, says she has met a woman serving a jail term for her father's assassination.Why would she tell the Press now is what a cynic would ask, but I love her so, all I say is 'Heh!'","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}