Creating Stories with Dolls

Inside Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s wonderful world and collection of Sylvanian families

October 05, 2016 05:04 pm | Updated October 06, 2016 10:09 am IST - MADURAI:

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S. James

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S. James

She is not even 16. And most of Madurai knows her as an accomplished bharatanatyam dancer whose arangetram performance two years ago was the talk of the town with none other than India’s corporate czar Ratan Tata watching it. But what most of Madurai does not know is that the young girl nurtures a fancy for collecting dolls. A typical girlie thing, you may think.

When she invited me over to see her collection, I presumed this being the navratri season, it must be her collection of Golu dolls. But I was pleasantly surprised by Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collection. It is not just about any doll or even the Barbie dolls, which little girls are crazy about.

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

 

From the age of nine, Lakshmi’s imagination has been captured by the wholesome sets of Sylvanian dolls and she has been buying them ever since, piece by piece, set by set. “I convince my parents to buy and it is my responsibility to maintain them as new as ever,” she says.

Her journey into the Sylvanian world started off with one small picnic set that she picked up at the Hamleys toy shop in London. “It made be want to go on a picnic”, she smiles and recalls how she was able to cajole her family into periodic picnic outings. “Though picnics are playful activities, they also reinforce family ideals of togetherness,” says Lakshmi, for whom every purchase of the Sylvanian family led to the strengthening of her own lessons and teachings in life and familial values and bonding.

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

 

On every tour outside the country to Malaysia, USA, Singapore and the U.K, she added to her collection and today boasts of over 40 different sets of Sylvanian dolls. There is little doubt that Lakshmi’s could easily be the only one and the largest of such a collection in the city.

“I love playing with them,” says the soft-spoken XIth grader of TVS Matriculation Higher Secondary School. “They are charming little creations with the most amazing buildings, characters and most wonderfully detailed accessories,” she adds.

Not many may be aware of the quaint position of Sylvanian families in the world of entertainment for kids. Based on the concept of love, family and nature, nothing bad happens in this world. It is a utopian world where a child – and even an adult – allows the imagination to rule and decide how life is lovely in any Sylvanian setting, whether it is a playground, nursery school or a village, a doctor’s clinic or a dress maker’s shop, a cosy cottage or a tree house, a camping site or a girl’s bedroom, a kitchen or a children’s play room.

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

BOUND BY SYLVANIAN DOLLS: Lakshmi Thiagarajan’s collections. Photo: S.James

 

“We can create different play patterns and create our own stories,” says Lakshmi. Sylvanian Families are not just about the figures. The families have homes and occupations, they live in modern double-storey houses or caves, they go to school and offices, have access to medical services, postal services, departmental stores, photo studios, ice-cream and doughnut stalls, restaurants, hotels and theatres. The Sylvanians are hard working and love to do business, make friends, keep their customers happy, entertain guests, keep track of news and have get-togethers.

“The Sylvanian theme is just like our day-to-day life,” points out Lakshmi, “but with a difference.” “It is a world where everyone lives happily and harmoniously and problem-free,” she adds.

It is the idyllic world of Sylvania that tugs at Lakshmi’s heart and she is equally awestruck with the incredible detail of the houses, furniture, accessories and memorable characters.

“I just love them all,” she says, quite unable to pick out her favourite. “The scenes and situations you can so realistically create with the Sylvanian dolls fascinates me no end,” she says. Her moods dictate the purchase and she recalls how she was tending to an injured baby squirrel at home and also reading Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree as a kid that made her pick up the Tree House. And the Sylvanian gardening set inspired her to grow flowers and vegetables on the terrace of her house. She talks with equal enthusiasm about her camping, beach, bakery and barbecue set.

“There is nothing Indian in these doll sets but they teach you so many positive qualities and reinforce quintessential familial values and ideals,” asserts Lakshmi, who made her parents build an exclusive glass shelf for her collection. “Now I am little grown up and these sets are gifted to me as rewards for some achievement,” she laughs but does not forget to mention the Sylvanian dolls have taught her to take care of her things and several other social skills because they mimic reality.

With academics and dance taking priority, would she give away these dolls? “No”, she returns vehemently. “There is a cosy, honest and comforting feeling about Sylvanian toys that does not let your interest wane,” points out the huge fan who also keeps reading about Sylvanian connoisseurs with huge collections overseas.

If the retro appeal of Sylvanian dolls the world over is colossal, the passion of every Sylvanian fan like Lakshmi is indefatigable.

Factfile

The word ‘sylvan’ means ‘of the forest’. Sylvanian Families was the brainchild of an executive at the Japanese toy firm Epoch, who reckoned that a simulacrum of a rural English idyll would enchant Japanese children who spent most of their lives in high-rise buildings. The brand has remained consistently popular in Japan, with manifestations of Sylvania to be found in stage shows, theme parks and themed restaurants. It has also ended up enchanting much of the Western world. In the US, retitled "Calico Critters", it was a copper-bottomed hit, and when the toys went on sale in the UK in 1987 people went nuts for it.

Over the years, Sylvania has become very diverse. The figures and characters grouped into families feature woodland creatures such as cats, dogs, penguins, monkeys, koalas, rabbits, otters, hedgehogs, squirrels, meerkats, Dalmatians, kangaroos, elephants, sheep, pandas and beavers.

Cost: Rs.2,000 to 10,000.

(Source: Internet)

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