Change.

 Navaratri and Our Traditions — The Dolls Have Found New Hands 

Every year, as Navaratri approaches, we hear concerns about our fast-disappearing Indian traditions. Are our children losing touch with our culture? Will the songs, stories, rituals, and customs that enriched our homes for generations survive in a rapidly changing world?

These are genuine concerns. But this year, my own family has given me a beautiful reason to feel hopeful.

In our home in India, the grandchildren took charge of arranging the Navaratri dolls. Across the oceans, in the USA, at my other child's home, the grandchildren did the same. They brought out the dolls and the traditional arrangements that had been given to them and created magnificent displays of their own.

Both exhibits are wonderful.

What touched me most was not simply the beauty of the arrangements. It was the enthusiasm, care, and creativity with which the younger generation had embraced something handed down to them.

The best part was they did not use all the dolls but a selected few. Which displayed how the thinking has changed. 

The dolls had travelled from one generation to another, but they had not become forgotten objects packed away in cupboards. They had been brought into the light, arranged with imagination, and given a place of honour in the homes of the next generation.

A Tradition Travels Across Oceans 

The Golu tradition is much more than arranging dolls on a set of steps. It brings together devotion, mythology, art, family memories, and scenes from everyday life. Each doll can tell a story. Each arrangement can become an invitation to learn something about our heritage.

When grandchildren take the initiative to create these displays, they do more than follow a family custom. They begin to make it their own.

That distinction matters.

A tradition survives most naturally when the next generation does not feel that it is merely fulfilling an obligation imposed by its elders. It survives when children find joy in it, add their own creativity, and feel proud of what they have created.

This year's Navaratri reminded me that cultural inheritance is not a one-way journey from grandparents to grandchildren. We give them the dolls, the stories, and the memories. They bring fresh imagination and energy to them.

In that exchange, the tradition remains alive.

We Need Not Fear Every Change 

The younger generation may not celebrate every festival exactly as we did. Their homes, schedules, interests, and circumstances may be different. Those growing up outside India may encounter our customs in a different cultural setting.

But must the outer form remain identical for the spirit to survive?

Perhaps not.

When grandchildren arrange inherited dolls with enthusiasm, they are building a connection with their roots. When they ask about a figure, learn a story, or invite friends to see their display, they create opportunities for that connection to deepen.

Most importantly, we should recognise that the younger generation is capable of carrying forward our heritage in its own way.

The Dolls Are Safe in Their Hands 

This Navaratri, I feel grateful to have witnessed something precious in both our family homes.

The dolls have found new hands. The arrangements have found new imaginations. And a tradition that might have seemed fragile has revealed its strength.

Perhaps this is how traditions survive—not through worry alone, not through criticism of the young, but through participation, affection, and the willingness to pass something beautiful on.

Our responsibility is to give our children and grandchildren more than objects. We must give them the stories, meanings, and memories that make those objects precious.

They, in turn, will decide how best to carry them into the future.

A tradition is not disappearing when the next generation takes it into its own hands. It is beginning another chapter.

This Navaratri, the dolls have reminded me of a simple truth: the lamp of our culture need not remain in the same house or even in the same country to keep burning.

It only needs someone willing to tend its flame.

And this year, in both our homes, I have seen that flame shining brightly.