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Swati Reddy

The doll's house may be crowded with the Barbies and the GI Joes. But Kondapally's wooden toys are slowly but surely winning back hearts.

Andhra Pradesh's tryst with toys and dolls is as ancient as the hills themselves. Whether it's the Tholu Bommalu, the Tirupati and Nirmal toys, the Ettikopaka toys or the Kondapally dolls, AP's craftsmen have elevated toys into delightful expressions of art.

But the doll's house seems to have no place for them any more. It's a common lament that "children have lost the culture of imagination and mock play", which was earlier intrinsic to their learning experience. However, several recent efforts to revive the folk art form have dolls' heads bobbing and cartwheels turning once again.

"Kondapally figures and Dashavataras have taken a backseat to reigning deities like Barbie, Spidey, the mechanical G.I. Joe and Pokemons," says Vijayalaxmi Narne, Chairperson of Crafts Council (AP).

Unfortunately, over the years, from a plaything, the Kondapally toy became a collectible. This shift ate into the repurchase market because, unlike children's toys, which tend to break, collectibles require little replacement. The waning of traditions like `Bommala Koluvu' or `Kollu', where dolls are displayed ceremoniously during the Dasara festival, and worse still, the switch to toxic chemical dyes from natural ones, further eroded the product's market viability.

Kondapally, 16 km from Vijayawada, is not just a geographical address but also a cultural reference point. These toys traditionally depict mythological characters, occupational figures like the village potter, fisherman, toddy tapper, besides rural folk and their animals and birds.

The term `Kondapally bomma' (which was often used in Tollywood till the likes of `Mona Lisa' took over) is an Andhraite's ultimate toast to feminine beauty. The utter simplicity and expressive features of these toys are disarming.

There is a local belief that the craftspersons originally came from Rajasthan and settled down in Kondapally under the patronage of the Reddy Rajulu. A few of the locals also imbibed their skill, swelling the craft community.

The raw material is a light flexible wood called `tella poniki' or `white sanders' sourced from the forests nearby. The wood is seasoned and every unit is carved out separately and glued on with an adhesive paste of tamarind, followed by a coat of limejuice. It is then painted in bright colours using brushes made of goat hair.

Like in most crafts villages, bulk market orders are handled by key-craftsmen with expertise and financial clout, who then involve the other artisans to execute the order. This homegrown version of outsourcing has however proved detrimental to the growth of the smaller craftspersons.

In the early 1980s, the then Chief Minister, N.T. Rama Rao allotted sites and built 42 houses for the artisans. With the AP Government floating Lepakshi Emporia as ready markets for handicrafts, Lepakshi became Kondapally's `bread and butter' market.

The term `sustainable livelihood' moved on from a fashionable buzzword to a happening reality. In fact, the famous Kondapally `elephant ambari' became Lepakshi's mascot.

Then came the Lanco Power Project at Kondapally in 2000. The Managing Director Harish Chandra Prasad believes that "every corporate should set an example by backing the art spawned by the community within which it operates". Lanco has invested nearly Rs 20 lakh into several community development programmes. Under the joint initiative of the Government and Lanco, each craftsperson has been given life insurance policy up to Rs one lakh. The craft community has been divided into 14 groups under the cluster group development programme. NGOs have also been roped in to help.

Dastakar - AP was one of the first to encourage the artisans to work with an improved colour palette. Much later, Crafts Council - AP conducted workshops and there was a gradual return to traditional vegetable dyes. NIFT introduced a product line more suited to the contemporary milieu and corporate gift items like boxes, pen knives, pin and pen holders, found ready takers. Today, each craftsperson has an assured order worth Rs 3,000 a month, thanks to Lepakshi. That averages to about Rs 10,000 a family.

And yet the picture is not all rosy. A craftsperson spends about Rs 250 to Rs 300 on raw material each month. While cooperative banks have loaned Rs 30,000 to groups of 10 craftspersons, there is always a dearth of finance. Prices start from Rs 30 for simple toys and move on to about Rs 350 for more elaborate ones.

Says Nageswar Rao, a craftsman, "The Government should give us financial access, besides subsidising the cost of wood and the paints. The wood should be made available to us at a craft centre, then we needn't source it from the forest."

Very often the wood is not seasoned properly or for long enough, so it becomes worm infested. Though the craftspersons try to ward off the rot by using kerosene, it has proved ineffective. Also, since these are handmade products, volumes can be stepped up only with the use of improvised tools.

The Government has earmarked Rs 1.5 crore under the cluster group development programme. The support is expected to range from inputs on design improvement, market support and technological intervention to financial assistance, and product diversification and upgrade. However, the funds are yet to see the light of day.

The export market for Kondapally toys is still at a nascent stage. While the Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation (APHDC) intends to move on from being a ready market to an active facilitator, the craftspersons themselves pose problems. Some are slothful and often mass-produce pieces unimaginatively.

Others are so steeped in tradition that they refuse to adapt to the changing scenario. In the meantime, it is heartening to note that many of the craftspersons' children intend to continue with their hereditary craft. Which is just as well.

Because, as Uzra Bilgrami of Dastkar puts it, "Craft is not meant to be enshrined in museums, showcased in heritage packaging. That would amount to burying it.

Allwrite

Picture by K.V. Srinivasan

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