A piece of nine

    It was Friday morning at 9 AM, the day before the onset of the Navaratri festival. I was engrossed in constructing the nine steps for displaying the Golu dolls; my son who was handling the spanner to tighten the bolts asked, "Why nine steps and not any other number?" I ignorantly looked at my mother for an explanation, before she could come out with an answer, he shot another question "Why celebrate only nine days and not more?" And my mother got busy narrating the significance of Navaratri to him, though I knew his true intentions behind the questions was for a steady supply of freshly made sweets, sundals and circle of friends and relatives would be visiting made him happy. So for the next nine days he will be on cloud nine.

    While we continued to assemble the steps, I called our techno boy and computer geek, my elder son and asked him to help me order some decorative lights. He gingerly fingered his mobile and was back within minutes with his best choice of lights costing 999 rs only!

    "Hey!, 9 AM, nine steps, nine days, cloud nine, 999 RS, What's it with me and the number nine today? I wondered!" As I continued to arrange the dolls my thoughts drifted away with the nine…

    Everyone knows that nine is the largest single digit number in the decimal system and the human gestation period is nine months. We also have a count on how many times Sachin Tendulkar got out at 99 and blah, blah, blah… but did you know that nine is considered as the number of Lord Brahma - the creator and the fact that Jesus Christ died at the ninth hour of the day!

    With my thoughts still hanging around the nine, the nine steps were ready and Lord Ganesha took the top step followed by the Dashavatar - set of ten dolls on the fifth step, Ashtalakshmi - set of eight dolls on step seven. My mother who was also helping passed me the Navagrahas - the nine dolls to arrange.

    Now, this nine was starting to play in my head, I always have fear of these nine Gods, who doesn't! One cannot guess what they have in store for you, each Graha competent in blessing us with health, luck, marriage, success, prosperity and anything or otherwise they could just derail your efforts even if you go the whole nine yards. Believe it or not, these nine Gods will give you an experience of having nine lives all in one trending lifetime.

    Slowly but steadily I completed arranging the dolls on the steps and moved on to decorate the village landscape on the floor. I was laying out the miniature utensils and kitchen appliances, clay vegetables and fruits" Ah! Fruits! It reminded me of my old school's moral science lessons, the Bible says - the number nine represents the fruits of God's holy spirit. 

    Then, I was holding the delicate ceramic laughing Buddha in my hand and staring into his broad grinning smile which made nine dig deeper in my brain... 

      The Chinese regarded nine to be a lucky number while the Japanese considered the curvy number unlucky, because it sounds similar to the Japanese word for agony and pain, so to say they even avoid products that have nine, in simple words, Bata footwear company cannot think of opening a shop in Japan. They consider nine so unlucky that Apple Inc deliberately missed the iPhone 9 on their series and went on to launch iPhone X, curious! Is it not?

    And so gradually, the rest of the dolls found their places. Though It was a laborious task, the result was satisfying. By the end of the day I had experienced all the nine emotions (Navarasam) too -

I fell in love with the beauty of baby Krishna doll's innocent face (shringara)

The fat laughing Buddha, yes definitely me smile (hasya)

But sad, I couldn't find an apt place for my favourite Kondapalli figurines (karuna)

The uncooperative ninth step's crooked bolt wouldn't just fit in, made me agitated and angry (raudra)

Needed strength and courage to carefully bring down the fragile but heavy doll boxes (veera)

As the Golu must be completed by Saturday night and it's already evening with little progress, fear gripped me (bayanaka)

Consequently, the evening tea got cold. So one could guess the expression on my face when the lifeless tea touched my lips, unpalatable! (bibhatsa - disgust)

Finally as a result of unceasing patience and diligence the final outcome of the Golu surprised all (adbutha)

And yes, after a satisfying hard day's work, when my head hit the pillow, all was tranquil... (shanta)

Uma Maheswari