A round pink doll of a man with bushy brows and a big curled up moustache catches our attention, largely because it has one eye filled and another one blank. Seeing our puzzled faces, Neha Parekh explains: “It is a Japanese Daruma doll. When you buy it, both the eyes are empty. You make a wish and fill the left eye and when the wish is fulfilled, you fill the right eye.” Parekh bought them a couple of months ago when she visited Japan. These traditional dolls are modelled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen tradition of Buddhism, and are seen as a symbol of good luck and perseverance, making them a popular gift. 

We are sitting in the drawing room of Parekh’s Prabhadevi home. Every table has been taken over by dolls and masks. Some are even on her walls, including a deep blue Bhairav mask. A management student who works in the family’s chartered accountancy firm, Parekh can’t put a finger on when the world of dolls sparked her curiosity.