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| You are here: COL home > Festivals & Religion > Navarathri > Articles > Khadi Bhavan | ||||||||||||||||
Shopping for golu dolls in Khadi Bhavan Buying
a new golu set for Navarathri - oh what a lovely experience that is!
Though it is customary to Good golu dolls are sold in various well known shops such as Khadi Bhavan, Poompuhar, Bommai Chathram in Mylapore as well as in places such as Ranganathan street etc. Khadi opened its doors to the golu doll buying public almost a month back itself, in order to accommodate the crowd that comes in for this purpose. Though the exhibition has been going on quite some time now, women still come in droves to take home some sets to add to their collection. There are over 500 varieties of dolls on display and they have come from all over India - from local makers in Chennai to Kancheepuram, Cuddalore, Pondicherry and even Calcutta. The dolls are made of either clay or papier maché and come in various sizes. The dolls fall into two major categories - religious dolls and those that depict the lifestyles of the Indian people and are priced for Rs.10 to Rs.14,000 for a single piece. As always, the Ramayana set is a big favourite among the people as well as this year's "new entry", the Thiruvannamalai giri valamset (Rs 550). Apart from the latter, many new sets such as "Kubera Aiswaryam" (Rs 435), "Pradosham" set (Rs290) and "Guru Peyarchi" set (Rs.116). One of their new sets, the "Vinayaka cricket" set had to be taken off the sale as a local ex-MLA has filed a case against the store, for depicting the Lord Ganesha as playing cricket. That was surprising, as no one seemed to raise a hue and cry when Ganesha idols were made to look like Netaji and Raghavendra and were even made out of Pepsi bottles, during the recently concluded Ganesha Chathurthi. "The set was well liked and we even had orders fro a special Computer Ganesha too", say the employees.
Apart from the traditional sets, there were also the Calcutta Bhajan sets as well as figurines of national heroes, like Rajiv Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda etc. These dolls were slender, had a wheatish colour and were priced Rs.23 each. There
were also the amazing toys from Kondapalli, in Andhra Pradesh. These toys
are exquisite - Other popular sets on sale are: the Kamatchi Thanga Ther -- Rs. 696; Vinayakar Oorvalam -- Rs.261; Tirupathi set -- Rs. 522; Krishna Thulabaram - Rs 261; Ramar set -- Rs145 to Rs.2,300; Meenakshi Kalyanam -- Rs.247; Ashta Lakshmi -- Rs.176; Radha Krishna - Rs.675; Garuda sevai - Rs.435. Extra attractions such as the park set is on sale for Rs.276, agriculture set for Rs.399, zoo set for Rs.189. Other
Articles : Lavanya |
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use the dolls handed down from grand mothers and
mothers, buying at least one new golu set is a must. 
Occupying
centre stage was the huge idol of Raja Rajeshwari, which at Rs.14,000, is
the most expensive single idol in the shop. "But it has already been
sold - the delivery will be done over the weekend", says the
Assistant Manager, Mr.Pandarinathan. Not only did he show us around the
store but also explained the difference between the clay and papier mache
dolls. "The clay dolls are the traditional ones and are heavy and the
current generation is finding them hard to take care of. The papier mache
dolls are more modern and the colours are fast - they are also easier to
manage as they are quiet light weight".
they are made of wood and weigh almost nothing! The toys
are made completely from wood - the figures were made of wood powder!
There was a Kondapalli Dasavadaram set, priced at Rs 2,175 and a smaller
Kondapalli Guhan set, which came with a price tag of Rs.98. 
