They sell golu dolls in carts on North Mada Street in Mylapore. They are from Vijayawada, but feel at home here. Some of these sellers speak Tamil too. The ones conversant in Tamil give elaborate answers to customers’ questions.
“I have been coming here for the last eight years during the kolu season to sell dolls,” says a middle-aged Durga Prasad Reddy, who hails from Nunna village in Vijayawada. He is one of forty-five from Vijayawada who have landed in Chennai in lorries with 40 carts and fibre dolls that were made in what is called Mango Market in Nunna village.
Ask him about the experience with Chennai’s customers, he chuckles. “If I said a doll cost Rs. 100 a customer would want it at as low a price as Rs. 20. Not all customers are like that. Some would be willing to buy it for Rs 50. Some others for Rs. 80,” says Prasad, as if he enjoys these bargains.
Apart from food, he gets a meagre sum of Rs. 350 a day for standing and selling dolls from 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 pm. Accommodation is a problem for the group. He says he will be happy if a big hall is provided for hem.
As for the sales, each man sells dolls worth Rs. 2000 approximately every day. The sales figures may go up or come down.
Do they face any problem in parking their carts? Says young Durga Rao, who speaks Tamil well: “Sometimes, it is difficult. I pay the watchman here Rs. 120 for this place. If I didn’t pay, he would disturb me.” Even as Durga Rao says this, a watchman from a nearby shop demands Rs. 10 from him.
Meanwhile, a woman asks Durga Rao for a Meerabai doll.
He gives her one. After a quick inspection, she tells him she’ll come back later for the doll. Elsewhere, two vendors from Team Vijayawada struggle to find space for their carts. Because the narrow street is crammed with cars, autorickshaws, bikes, men and women.
But, with people rushing in to meet the doll sellers from Vijayawada, for some more days, this is how this road is going to be. Vijayawada kolu dolls are sold from 10.00 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.
