Bengaluru: A doll sitting upright may not be enough for Bengaluru’s Gombe Habba enthusiasts anymore. As elaborate themes become central to annual displays, some families are making and customising dolls to fit the stories they want to tell.The preparations do not just begin a week or a month before. The plans for next year’s Dasara begin the previous year itself. In Girinagar, a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo have spent the past year preparing a Ramayana-themed display. “After visiting Ayodhya, we decided to arrange our dolls along the Ramayana theme this year. We are planning to keep around 600 dolls and we have made around 10% of them by hand this year. We have made wire dolls, which are easier to make in any pose and posture,” said Maduri Anandh, the daughter-in-law who works as an admin officer for a private company.The family has been arranging Gombe Habba dolls for 12-13 years, with their collection now including dolls from the UK, US, Japan and Australia. During the 10-day festival, the display occupies almost the entire house.For Rajajinagar resident Padma B Udayakumar, too, the work begins much earlier than the festival. The 52-year-old has been arranging dolls for over four decades and has won several national and international Gombe Habba contests. This year, she is recreating the sanctum sanctorum of Tirumala in Tirupati and Andal Vaibhavam, celebrating Srivaishnavism. “Andal is one of the saint poetesses,” Padma said.For Padma, the display is also an exercise in documentation. “This has become my identity now, with visitors expecting creativity out of me every year. I even keep my research material in a printed form so that those who come to see the dolls also get to read it,” she said.Padma began giving her displays a specific theme after the pandemic. Her earlier themes have included Indian textiles, ancient Indian games and Navadurga puja.
