The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Cute dolls, gifts coming

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Monday, Sep 22, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Cute dolls, gifts coming

Deepa H Ramakrishnan

Vendors fill their shops with essentials and frills for Navaratri

— Photo: M. Karunakaran

Decked up: A customer looks at the dolls on display at Mylapore in Chennai.

CHENNAI: For Jayanthi Raja, a fruit seller, the Navaratri season brings a lot of cheer and joy. For, she makes more profit selling dolls during this season than she does while selling fruits.

“We buy most of our dolls from Kancheepuram. We are here in Mylapore for an entire month. We have been selling dolls for nearly 20 years,” she said.

Mani, an employee of a private firm, has taken a month’s leave to help his mother sell dolls at a makeshift shop they have put up on a footpath.

“With the inflation, prices of dolls have also gone up. But we still try and sell them for a price lesser than that at shops. We do not make much profit.”

Vendors like Jayanthi and Mani buy dolls directly from those making them. They pay the doll makers small advances and sell the dolls at a slightly higher price. Areas such as Mylapore, T.Nagar and Triplicane have become favourite locations for people to shop for dolls.

As the nine-day festival comes closer, thousands of people file past the row of doll shops on North Mada Street in Mylapore and at least half of them buy dolls.People like Mythili Narasimhan from Alwarpet, who has been arranging ‘kolu’ for over 60 years now always buys dolls from Mylapore. She said that she used to have enough dolls for 11 steps but over the years she has given most of them to her daughters and relatives.

“I used to have dolls that were nearly three-feet-tall. Building the steps was a major portion of the work. I had to find and arrange benches, boxes and tins of the right sizes. But now I don’t have the space for such huge dolls,” she added.

Places like Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan on Anna Salai have been holding exhibition-cum-sale of dolls since 1967. This year alone, their purchases have touched Rs.50 lakh and there is an annual increase of 10 percent. They buy dolls from places like Kancheepuram, Puducherry, Panrutti, West Bengal and Kosapet in Chennai, said a spokesperson at the store.

New arrivals of dolls this year include a 160-piece Ramayanam set depicting the tale of Rama from birth to Pattabhishekam; a lawyer Ganesha; Dhampathi Dakshinamurthi and Sethubandanam set (Rama embracing Hanuman).

With Navaratri being a time when friends, relatives and neighbours visit each other, gifts too have become part of the tradition. Former colleagues and friends Saradha Madhanagopalan and Chitralalitha Megharaj from Alwar Thirunagar make it a point always to shop at Mylapore for dolls and gifts.

“The gift shops are right next to the dolls shops making it convenient for people like us. We come and take a look at what is on offer and then come again on another day to purchase,” said Ms. Megharaj.

The friends get around 100 visitors each to their homes during the season. “Last year we took part in two Kolu competitions. Our budget for dolls is Rs.1,000 and for gifts Rs.2,000. We have chosen themes too for the arrangement of dolls. I want to display the Navagraha Nayakis and she has planned to do one on the linking of rivers,” said Ms. Madhanagopalan.

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