A figurative way

You climb hastily on the wooden staircase of the first building in Kshatriya

Niwas, Girgaum, only to find our hero working downstairs, in his garage. 

80 year old Praful Bhiwandkar has a collection of 500-600 porcelain figures that

he has collected over a span of 5 decades. 

His 2BHK flat is home to memories of him collecting these figures in every

auction. He says, “Sadhana (Mr. Prafuls late wife) and I love them. It defines our

relationship”. 

He recalls purchasing the first figure in 1967, after he read Sunday times, Times of

India about an auction. And then on began their collection which has now been

followed for the second generation. He recalls, the first figure we purchased was

the figure of a baby. 

My wife and I would always have differences of opinion, after a while we would

settle for one.

We used to walk around the streets of Bombay, it was so much different from what it is today. 

“People would believe that possessing show pieces would bring good omen for the

family’ he adds.

A Maharashtrian by birth, he pursued many odd jobs until he finally bought a

garage and settled down. The last purchase he did was on Friday, right before the

lockdown. He purchased  two figures. 

“Most of the people at the auctions know me very well. I would always get phone

calls requesting to pay a visit”.

Mr. Praful has certain specifics when he buys any figure. He looks out for how

accurate the eyes and fingers of the dolls are to real life. Only if he sees that the

representation is accurate, he purchases them. “Nowadays, no figures have

accuracy. The figure should talk to you” he adds. 

There is a lot of difference in the figures that are made today.”I once purchased a figure of Ram, Laxman and Sita. They are still so shiny and pristine, the cuts

itself were totally different” he says.

Figures stacked appropriately in shelves.

He holds no specific budget, the costliest figure is a porcelain ganesha idol. The

family offers prayers to the same during every ganesha festival. He says, “I

purchased the ganpati figure for 2000 Rs, it is the costliest among all the figures i

have”.

Mr. Praful does not think about the expense when he makes the purchase. He says,

“jo bhi cheez pasand hai, uska kharcha ginn na nahi chahiye. Jitna sochenge utna

aap leoge nahi” (One should never think about the expenses that they make while

buying what they love)

Mr.Praful believes that due to markets, the charm of auctions has gone away. 

“I take immense pride in the collection that I have, my family members equally

love them”.

The collection at Praful Bhiwandkar's residence

His second son took some of his favourite figures to keep them with him in his

house at Vile Parle. “I miss the figures, but I am glad that I have imbibed a sense

of love for these figures in my children too” he adds. 

He cleans all the figures kept neatly in shelves according to sizes, part by part.

Everyday a little portion of the shelf is cleaned, he proudly says.

“I look for myself among them. Even if my family members keep me unfed, I am

fine with it. I just want them to give me money to buy more figures ” Praful says.

(He drove my bestfriend, Saachi to school. She would sit facing the opposite direction and talk endlessly till the rustic scooter that he drove was out of sight. )