|
In a bid to popularise
rag dolls that have a history of their own, Priyadarshini
Dolls has scored a ten on ten. Upalparna Dey reports
It is literally a rags to riches story for Ashima Mukherjee,70,
whose simple hobby to pass time has now turned into a successful
business venture. Her kolkata-based Priyadarshini Dolls is
now a well-known brand. It actually began innocuously when
she was in Ambala after marriage. Decorating broken egg shells
or stitching leftover rags into dolls helped her to kill time.
Gradually, she picked up the leftover things at home and even
the damaged table tennis balls her husband gave her, to make
dolls or artefacts out of them.
Little did this housewife know that a hobby would soon turn
into a passion and an enterprising business venture. “I
never started off with the idea of setting up a business.
It was a matter of good luck, sheer hard work and perseverance
that has made Priyadarshini Dolls reach places,” says
Mukherjee modestly. She did not have much know-how about the
tricks of the trade. “But with time, I learnt from my
experiences. It was my passion and belief in integrity that
saw me through adverse situations,” she adds. Word of
mouth soon spread and it wasn’t long before Priyadarshini
Dolls became a name to reckon with.
Rag dolls are on the upswing in the popularity chart all across
the world today, especially since people have come to appreciate
traditional crafts and are interested in preserving such traditions.
Rag doll making dates back to as far back as 300 B.C. For
centuries, mothers used to make rag dolls for their children
which were often cherished as their first toy. Commercially,
rag dolls were first introduced in the 1850s by American and
British manufacturers. The popularisation of home- made rag
dolls rose with the invention of the sewing machine and magazine
pattern printing.
Looking back, Mukherjee’s eyes turn misty as she recalls,
“Noticing my passion for making rag dolls, my sister
encouraged me to exhibit some dolls in the school she taught
in Kolkata, saying that it would be a source of inspiration
to the students.”
Her first exhibition almost 40 years back became the turning
point in her life. Orders started pouring in from many places
and soon she found her hands full. “But I never approached
anyone to take my products,” she says; the media and
word of mouth brought her the recognition. Unable to take
the pressure single handedly, Mukherjee recruited six girls
for training and launched Priyadarshini Dolls as a brand.
“I remember getting an order from a store in Chowringhee
sometime in 1965, which is now shut down, for supplying 12
dolls. But I could supply only eleven,” she remembers.
The products reached many of the central and government emporiums
in the city and beyond like those in Mumbai, Bangalore and
Chennai. Some of the leading restaurants of Kolkata and NGO
outlets s also took her products. “Recently we sent our
first consignment to the Delhi Hut for sale and to the National
Crafts Museum for display,” says daughter Devipriya,
who took over the reigns seven years back when her mother
became ill and wanted to shut down the business. ”The
show must go on is something I strongly believ in and didn’t
want my mother’s passion to die without at least trying
to run the show,” she says.
With Barbie and other anorexic dolls stealing the show, Devipriya
set out to uphold the traditional cloth doll and keep her
mother’s dream of promoting Indian crafts alive.
With nine women working full time and ten working part time,
Devipriya says that they have to create almost 700 pieces
of the product a month. Their products include rag dolls,
papier-mâché dolls, animal showpieces, wall hangings,
curtain chains, and chimes.
Mukherjee still contributes her bit to the production. “When
I started out I used to paint the eyes and mouth of the dolls
with the tip of a safety-pin, often leading to the colour
dripping off. But that’s how I learnt,” she remembers.
She still works along with her daughter to paint the faces
of the dolls. However, the paintings on the bigger dolls are
done by Kumartuli artisans. The use of the sewing machine
is rare in their products and the mother-daughter duo encourages
hand-work. The dolls are stuffed with refined cotton and new
pieces of cloth, sequins, papier-mâché, zari
borders are used to decorate the dolls. “We never compromise
on the quality and use new pieces of clothes to dress up the
dolls, as there are chances of old rags containing infection,”
says Mukherjee.
A reflection of India’s varied culture is inherent in
these quaint and beautiful creations but Devipriya is also
pragmatic enough not to be averse to making dolls with specific
demands. For example, when a trendy Chinese cuisine restaurant
in Kolkata placed an order for dolls resembling the Chinese
she took up the challenge.
But the journey has not always been a smooth one. “Since
we belong to the city, are literate and belong to the middle
class, we are not expected or encouraged to be artisans. Besides,
had we been from the rural belt we would have got a lot of
support from the government. But I am proud to say that I
am a self-taught artisan,” says Mukherjee, a livewire
even at 70.
|
