Bombe Habba – The Doll Festival



Dolls depicting story of Lord Rama

The 9 days festival of Navratri is on. The 10^th day will be the Daseera festival. During these 9 days is a festive season with food, colorful dresses, festive celebrations with musicals, dances shows etc. Mysore has a 10 day festival with public shows, elephant parades on the last day. People visit Mysore just to attend the 10-day festival. Though I am born in Mysore, I have never seen the actual festival. Simply because I never lived there through my childhood; and through the past two years I have been away during this time of the year. Each of the 9 days hold significance in the Indian mythology. During this time, people celebrate Golu or Bombe Habba by arranging various dolls depicting the culture of old India, the people from agricultural background, the kings and queens, dolls of various gods and goddesses.

Dolls depicting lifestyle, gods, art and culture

We were invited by my husband’s colleague for the Doll festival; quite unusual with a lunch invite. After the festive meal we went into their bungalow. The entire ground floor was filled with numerous doll so many that I think they would have a bedroom just to store these dolls. And what an amazing collection of dolls! They are a join family and have dolls from generations; clay and mud ones, wooden, metal, all kinds! And even to this date they add a set of doll each year to their collection.

Full stage of dolls

Like this year they ordered to make a set of 10 pieces depicting the life of Lord Rama. I had so much fun watching through all the dolls. They were like a museum of dolls! All well preserved and maintained!

And the mood was amazing; what a beautiful festival of inviting friends to come over and see the doll collection. And the whole family celebrates it; a different scene to see a joint family celebrate the festival so collectively and sharing the same hobby.