A few days back, I was with my niece Srijani and nephew Rick, on the formers birthday, and I gifted her a pair of dolls, which she had secretly wished for from me. They had brought out all their dolls and kitchen sets and we were playing, scattering things on the floor. Srijani is more interested in dressing up her dolls, and changing their dresses, while Rick is the one who takes charge of organizing things in place, and even cooking and making tea with his toy utensils. They reminded me of my own childhood.I am an avid lover of dolls, and I used to play with dolls even when I was quite grown up. Even today, I love visiting a toy shop and browsing through the miniature kitchen items and the life size baby dolls with fluffy hairs and chubby cheeks. As a little girl, I used to have an elaborate collection of dolls and items for my doll's house . My mother was an ardent enthusiast , and would buy me little plastic items for my doll's house - i remember having a red plastic gas stove along with a red gas cylinder, complete with a green pipe, along with a yellow pressure cooker, the lid of which could be opened too!! I was the first and only one among my friends to have such a gadget, and for a long period of time, was the sole owner of a gas oven :) ; I also had a number of miniature baskets of different shapes and sizes, a sewing machine, an iron, tea sets, juice sets, school set, all sorts of plastic and aluminum utensils, table fan, and even a miniature carrom board for my dolls. Apart from these I had all sorts of miniature wooden and plastic furnitures, and my mother used to make small pillows , bedsheets and quilts out of leftover pieces of materials that were bought for making my dresses. Often when we would go to the market, we would go to our tailor, and collect the left over pieces of dress materials from the shop, to bring back and make dresses for my dolls. I remember , once my aunt had made me some intricately detailed dresses for my dolls mixing and matching such pieces collected from the tailor; and my grandmother had knit sweaters for two of my dolls.My most precious possession was a set of furnishings, including a miniature mattress, bed sheet, pillows, side pillows, and even a perfect blue mosquito net, all of which were stitched by a distant granny. My mother had made me a quilt with traditional stitiching, and together the items completed the set. I still have the set intact with me, as a memoir from that loving lady who was no less than a magician for me. She had also made me a number of neck pieces for my dolls using tiny beads of different colors and shapes. Compared to my friends, I was quite rich in terms of material possession :)I had a politically correct doll's family - father, mother, uncle, aunt and children , designated according to their looks and sizes- each of them even had a name of their own!! We used to stay in a small two roomed apartment, but even among all the space crunch, my mother had allowed me one full shelf to organize my doll's house. And what a nicely organized home it was - with separate rooms, defined with pieces of cardboards, for each couple, the "spinster" aunt and the children, along with a living room, a dining space, a kitchen and even a toilet. I think that by playing "homemaking" in such details and with such enthusiasm in my childhood had helped me a lot in grooming myself for better home management when I grew up.When we shifted to our new house, which was comparatively much more spacious, I got a bigger space to arrange my dolls house. I was very much protective about them, and wouldn't allow even my little cousins to touch them - I zealously guarded them from anybody and everybody who could disrupt the perfect peace of the "household". When I left home to start college and stay in a hostel, I arranged them all nicely inside an old trunk that belonged to my grandmother, and instructed my mother that she should put out the trunk in the autumn sun, after the monsoon, to prevent the things from catching moss. In the first couple of years,I took care to open up the trunk and check the things. Gradually, as it had to happen one day, the trunk with the dolls inside became less important to me, and I remember consciously loosing interest in them. I was growing up, life had many other things in store for me, and my childhood priorities had to give way to the choices of youth.On one such visit to home, when I suddenly took interest in opening the trunk and checking my dolls, I found many of the miniature items were broken, twisted, or some part of them being lost. I realized it happened because the things were not kept properly. My mother had taken the trouble of putting them in the sun, but she didn't have enough time or patience to arrange them properly again, which resulted in the damages. I couldn't say anything to her, because I myself didn't often take care to open up the trunk, even if I was on vacation for a fortnight. But somehow I felt very guilty and sorry for the dolls.Quite a few years passed till about five years back, I decided to give away my possessions to my youngest cousin, who is twenty years younger than me, was visiting us in the vacation. I gave her away most of them, including the miniature furnitures and other household items. My mother, who had been a constant inspiration in my cherished moments of "homemaking", was very much surprised to see me take such a decision.It was a strange feeling, I was happy and sad at the same time, with a sense of sorrowful freedom.Some of the items remained, which I sorted and brought last year for Srijani and Rick. They were utmost happy to see the toys. It was something they didn't quite imagine of.All these thoughts and many more, filled up my mind when I was playing with them. Then, at one point of time, Rick seemed to be a bit disturbed, because he couldn't arrange two of the small dolls to lie down in the tiny bed that once belonged to me. So I told them to use old shoe boxes to make bigger beds to fit in all the dolls. It was an idea readily accepted, and kitchen dusters were borrowed as makeshift bedspreads.I didn't like it at all, and told them that the next day I come , I will bring bedsheets for their dolls. Rick immediately told me I should bring at least four of them, because two will be needed to cover up the dolls when they are asleep!!By the time I came back home, I had already decided that I will not only find some old dress which I can cut to make the bedsheets for them, I will also make some small pillows for the dolls and some blankets too :) I remembered my mother and my aunts, and realized it was now my turn to pass on the legacy . Ifound a very old dress, which was fortunately still quite clean in look. I got it washed and then started my stitching endeavor. I ended up making six small pillows, with cotton stuffing, and two bedsheets, one of which has matching lace borders on opposite sides. I also made three blankets, using clean, used handkerchiefs of same size and texture, stitching them together, with cotton stuffing inside them.
I arranged all the furnishings inside a big red cardboard box, and took back the next week .When I opened the box in front of them, I loved to see the surprise in their eyes and the smiles on their face. I could make another half a dozen pillows , just to see such smiles !!My stitching was not up to the mark, I did them all very fast, completing everything in about 4-5 hours, as , with full childlike excitement, I wanted to complete them as soon as possible .But I loved making them, because,I somehow relived my childhood days.