Dasara opens with doll shows

Homes in Bengaluru are displaying characters from the myths and keeping up the festive spirit

Many homes in Bengaluru are all set for Gombe Habba, the festival of dolls, beginning on Saturday.

While most displays are dominated by mythological and historical characters, cricket players and contemporary personalities also feature in some.

Smaller affair

Professional storyteller Aparna Ramachandran, a resident of HSR Layout, usually displays 11 rows of dolls, but will limit it to three this time.

“My collection has more than 500 dolls spread out in the living room and visible for people as they enter. Once we place a ‘kalasha,’ the dolls are considered gods,” she explains.

A unique set she owns is the ‘Ravan Durbar’, portraying a scene from the court of the Lankan king. “Thanjavur dancing dolls are this year’s addition,” she says.

Aparna calls children from her daughter Deeksha’s school every year and narrates stories to them. This year, she isn’t calling too many people over.

Kitchen sets from great grandmother

Swathi Balaji, homemaker and resident of Vidyaranyapura, has 200 miniature kitchen pieces as part of a large collection of dolls.

“The kitchen sets were passed on by my great grandmother to my grandmother, who gave them to me. Some of these are made of stone and others from brass,” she adds.

Her collection includes dolls from Chennai and Hyderabad. A set with 50 dolls is from Kanchipuram. The ‘Sethu Bandhana’ set portrays the building of a bridge by an army of monkeys.

Miniature vegetables, porcelain dolls, and zoo and cricket sets are among her collection. She plans to welcome people home by staggering their visits and following physical distancing.

Supporting artisans

Ranjani Srinivasan, HR professional and resident of HBR Layout, has a collection of about 350 dolls.

She picks up new dolls every year and this year, she visited Krishnagiri and bought some directly from the artisans.

“I wanted to avoid the middlemen. The pandemic has been tough for everyone and I wanted to do my bit for the artisans,” she says.

Ranjani’s display is focused on Ramayana this year. She is not “consciously inviting anyone over this year”.

Radhika Kusum J, a computer professional and resident of Vijayanagar, started her collection as a teenager.

“The latest edition to my collection is the Mysore Dasara procession, which I found cute and unique,” she says.

She says it is a belief that buying dolls every year brings auspiciousness and prosperity. She owns some ‘Pattada gombe’ sets (couple dolls).

Dhaatu festival goes online

For the first time, the Dhaatu Navaratra Mahotsava is going online.

Festivities are streamed from 3.30 pm every day from October 17 to 25.

The event will give glimpses of past doll displays, story-telling sessions and puppet shows hosted by the Bengaluru-based puppet theater and culture education centre. Anupama Hoskere, director of Dhaatu, says the grandest celebration in India is marriage, and doll displays reflect the sentiment. “Even the gods had to pull off extraordinary feats to get married and have a consort. Stories with the Gowri dolls of Karnataka are not to be missed,” she says. Every day there will be a story about one virtue of Hanuman and a puppet show. The programme ends with the puppet show ‘Vijayanagara Vaibhava’ on October 25, which traces the art and literary history of Karnataka, the culture and traditions of the land from Treta Yuga to current times, she adds.

The puppet show features kings, warriors, saints, dancers, scholars and musicians who make Karnataka proud.

Where: Live streaming on www.facebook.com/dhaatu and youtube.com/DhaatuVideos.
The recorded videos can be viewed 24 hours after streaming.