From Anna, MGR, Mahakavi to quilling dolls

CHENNAI: Located in the narrow streets of Mogappair, Kasthuri and Anandakumar welcome us with a hearty smile. The second floor is filled with age-old golu dolls, a few of which are five decades old. “We have been arranging golu for almost 25 years now. It’s a family tradition. But we wanted to step out of the conventional path and started doing thematic ones,” starts Kasthuri, a homemaker.

For this year, the couple has different concepts connected with our roots. “The city kids hardly know about village life. So, we have kept dolls that will take the adults on a nostalgic ride. We have small houses, women cooking idly and dosa outside their houses, temple traditions, playing thaayapaas, jallikattu and much more. Apart from these, we have the miniature setup of pattimandram, street cricket and the life of tribal people. During my son’s childhood, he wanted to recreate how he played cricket with his friends. That’s why we got the idea of street cricket. All these dolls are around two decades old,” she adds. She credits her husband for buying these toys and helping her to maintain them.

An ardent admirer of the late Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Anna and MG Ramachandran, Anandakumar possess a 50 years old doll of Anna. “Today’s children should be aware of such great leaders and their great qualities. To impart the values of Thirukural, we have added Thiruvalluvar’s doll and honouring contributions of Bharathiyar in Tamil literature and freedom struggle, we have kept the idol of Mundaasu Kavi as well,” he shares. One theme that caught our attention is ‘All religions are equal’, which was depicted with idols of Vinayagar, Buddha and Mary.

Lil Trails is an initiative started by Avanti Natarajan and her husband Rajavel, who work closely with children for their betterment. “We have kept Lil Golu, which is apt to their eye level. Interestingly, the mini version of golu will comprise Chennapatna toys and quilling dolls, procured by Sabesh. During our childhood, we pretended and played using kitchen sets to cook and serve. But now kids are not aware of such games. To emphasise that, we have kept dolls of children playing with a skipping rope, coconut and flower vendors on the street and Carnatic musicians on the other side,” Avanti tells DT Next.

“Festivals like these are a chance for us to remind the forthcoming generation about rich traditions and culture. It is also an opportunity to rekindle our creative side,” Kasthuri and Anandakumar states. Adding to that, Avanti reflects, “Navarathiri is that time of the year when kids will reconnect with physical toys. It also helps us to showcase our rustic livelihood, which has now vanished in the city life.”