For actor and singer Ankita Amar, Gombe Habba has always been about curiosity. As a child, the colourful dolls and elaborate arrangements caught her attention. Today, while the excitement remains the same, her interest goes beyond their appearance. She finds herself asking questions about the stories behind the dolls, the traditions passed down through generations and the significance of celebrating Navaratri.As she joins Bangalore Times for a special Gombe Habba shoot, Ankita looks back on how her relationship with the festival has changed over the years. Interestingly, this year’s celebrations also happen to coincide with her exploration of the divine feminine on screen, as she plays a goddess in her recently released Kannada music video, Gejje.‘I love discovering the stories behind every Gombe’Looking back to her childhood love of Gombe Habba, Ankita says her curiosity hasn’t faded one bit. “Whenever there’s something new, or someone has come up with a clever concept, I end up asking plenty of questions to the person who set up the Gombe. I want to know what they did and why they chose to do it that way,” she says.What has evolved is the nature of those questions. “When I was young, I only cared about the food, the dolls, the colours and how everything was arranged. Now there’s another side to it. I want to understand the tradition itself, why we follow it, and what Navaratri really signifies.”For Ankita, part of the delight in viewing a Gombe display is getting to know the characters who bring the scene to life. “Whenever I see a Gombe set, I want to know about each character in it. I love listening to mythological stories, and I think that curiosity will always stay with me,” she says.‘There is an energy that connects us all’Navaratri is a celebration of feminine power, and for Ankita, the festival has taken on an added meaning through her recent music video, Gejje, in which she portrays a goddess.“People sometimes tell me that I am spiritual, but I still haven’t understood the word completely. I haven’t dived deep into these subjects. I am a science student, and there is this theory that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but can be transformed from one form to another. I believe that some energy can never be lost,” she says.She links this thought to blessings and the chances that come her way. “Maybe that energy is transferred in the form of blessings or what we call anugraha in Kannada. I feel fortunate that Goddess Saraswati and Goddess Mookambika have given me this opportunity to play this role in my recent music video,” she shares.‘Gen Z is learning spirituality in its own way’At a time when younger generations are often seen as being disconnected from their roots, Ankita offers a different perspective. “People often say that our generation, especially Gen Z, doesn’t understand its roots or culture. But I look at it differently. When people talk about spirituality, they often speak about being detached, not holding on to emotions for too long and learning to go with the flow,” she says.“Even without deeply exploring spirituality, I feel many people in our generation are practising it in their own way. We are sensitive when it comes to relationships, friendships and the society around us. At the same time, we are learning to move past the things that happen in our lives,” she adds.For Ankita, exploring life, meeting new people, asking questions and being open to change are also ways of understanding the world and oneself. “I feel there are people in our generation who find their own ways of balancing things, even without following religion in the traditional sense,” she shares.
