Handmade in India
If you travel around India from NORTH to SOUTH and from EAST to WEST,you will see people making things everywhere - in the fields, beside the road, in open doorways, and on verandahs.
They make things to eat, to wear, to sell and to help build India and its people.
And it’s all there for everyone to see...
* Map of India on next page not to scale
Here are two Himachali women I met when I was walking in the Himalayan Mountains in Himachal Pradesh in the NORTH.
Do you know what these women are doing?
I have painted them with sheep because they are using SHEEP’S WOOL for what they are making. One woman SPINS the wool to make it into an even thread. The other is KNITTING a multi-coloured, woolly jumper. Wool can be dyed all the colours of the rainbow. But I rather like the woman who is wearing a natural coloured outfit-it’s the same colour as the brown sheep.
This is a sight you see all over India : Women collecting water from a well to drink and cook with. These women are from Haryana in the NORTH.
Well water is usually the cleanest and safest water to drink as it comes straight from deep under the ground, far from all the pollution that can seep into surface water. These women are wearing the typical North Indian dress- the Salwar Kameez. Look at how well they balance two pots of water on their heads.
Could you do that?
I saw this man at work sitting outside his workshop in Karnataka in the SOUTH. He is a sculptor and he is using a hammer and a chisel to make an image of a god out of stone.
Can you guess which one?* I have painted all the tools he uses for his work. I think they make interesting shapes all lined up together. Surrounding him are other sculptures he has made - of animals and people.
Do you recognize any of them?
*Ganesh
On the edge of a forest in KARNATAKA I came across these women collecting FIREWOOD. They are wandering gypsies from a tribe called the BANJARA tribe. Look at the heavy jewellery they wear. But even HEAVIER must be these huge bundles of sticks they are carrying.
Can you see how they have wound up pieces of cloth into a tight circle and placed it on their heads to help them balance the load? This also protects them from any thorns or spikes the sticks may have.
Can you guess what fruit is growing on the trees?
These women are also from KARNATAKA and they are helping MAKE one of the most important things to eat in India - RICE.
Rice grows in flooded fields called PADDY FIELDS . Here the women are ankledeep in the paddies replanting the RICE SAPLINGS at regular intervals so that the rice will grow strong and healthy.
Can you see how the women have tied up their sarees so that their clothes don’t get wet in the water?
I think their backs must ache by the end of the day, don’t you?
I saw these men mending a railway track in Goa on the SOUTH-WEST coast of India.
Can you see all the different tools they use?
I like the fact that the workers’ uniforms use the colours of the Indian flag: orange, white and green. Can you see the man who is in charge of all the workers? I made the railway into the shape of a clock as trains have to be on time.
I visited a village in Odisha in the EAST entirely made up of craftspeople. Everybody was sitting outside their houses and workshops MAKING things. This lady is a papier- mache painter. She has painted, amongst other things, some brightly coloured images of JAGANNATH.
Do you know who he is? He is Krishna by another name. Look at all the different patterns and the different colours the painter uses. She hopes to sell her wares to tourists and pilgrims.
I like her elephant masks best, do you?
Beside a dusty village road in Bengal in the EAST, I came upon this man - called a ‘thathera’* - beating tin strips into a bucket shape.
First he decorated the tin by puncturing holes in its surface with a pin to make interesting patterns. Then he rolled the metal into a cylinder (as he is doing here) and making a great racket, he bashed the two ends together with small pins. Finally he attached the base of the bucket in the same way. They look very pretty, don’t you think? *This is the word in Hindi
These people are making BRICKS. I like the way the name stamped on the brick is GOLD, as if they were nuggets of gold instead of bricks made out of baked earth.
Here the women are taking some specially prepared BRICK CLAY and are shaping it in the rectangular wooden moulds. They slice off any excess clay with a strip of metal. Bricks are baked in a special oven called a KILN and the entire process of making a brick takes 25 DAYS. These ovens have tall, thin, tower-like chimneys. You can see these CHIMNEYS all over India, dotting the countryside. I saw these brickmakers in BENGAL.
Travelling through BENGAL, I passed a lot of small, round ponds called Pukurs. There I saw these FISHERWOMEN carrying their round NETS with the day’s catch in the little BASKETS which they strap to their heads.
I watched them catch fish. A group of women stood up to their waists in WATER, forming a row in the pond. They each splashed the water vigorously holding the bamboo rim of their nets. Then, altogether, they would dip their nets lower into the water, and, altogether, scoop up any fish. I have painted the fish their actual size. People like to eat them fried and crispy. Would you?
I went to a wedding in RAJASTHAN in the WEST and I watched a huge wedding feast being prepared.
These women were MAKING CHAPATIS. They sat in a circle, each person helping with one stage of the chapati making. So the first lady sieved the flour through a metal sheet with lots of holes in it. Another, adding water, kneaded it into dough with her fist. The next separated the dough into little balls, ready for the final rolling out into a chapati shape.
A large plate of ready rolled chapatis was then whisked off into the kitchen to be cooked for the wedding feast.
These women are ROAD BUILDERS. I saw them flattening out some rocky ground in RAJASTHAN. They used their picks and shovels to help clear a pathway through the desert. Later, a proper road for cars and trucks will be laid down. These women come from the RABARI tribe in Rajasthan.
I was particularly struck by the colourful clothes they wore and the strength these women had to do this very hard work.
Which lady is wearing the most bangles? And can you spot a tiffin box?
