Soaked in devotion when denizens of Ranchi meld in the carnival of festivity seeking ‘Darshan’ of deity Durga, October 10 onwards, pandal-hopping and feasting their eyes on artistry par excellence, for seconds ought to pay a thoughtful ovation to the creative hands that amplify beauty braving hardships.
Destination Bakri Bazaar in Ranchi, for the last one and a half months, has been a seat of flurry of creative craftsmanship. A battery of 32 artisans under their leader Jagganath Adak is engaged in creating replica of a majestic palace. They are natives of Howrah Baghman and Medinapore hired by Parvati Developers, a Medinapore based company. Jagganath’s nimble fingers skilfully wraps jute threads around rectangular framework of bamboos and ply adorned with intricate
floral patterns carved out of thermocol.
Gaze transfixed on his work, Jagganath narrates, “Most of us are first generation artists. Our families’ main occupation is paddy cultivation, barely enough for sustenance. We learnt the art of pandal making from Jivan Da, a local artist. It offers an alternative source of income that pays between Rs 6000 to 15000 per month, depending on our artistic deftness”.
Ironically their ignorance makes them blissful of the fact that the company is pocketing an astronomical sum as profit. Aimed at maximum saving, their temporary dwellings are dingy makeshift tents in cluster of twos erected within a stone’s throw away radius from the pandal.
“The artisans must resign themselves to 11-13 hours of intense back-breaking routine daily in the tail-end days of the Puja. So consuming is the task that we endure long hours of food interval, sometimes
thriving on 20 cups of tea,” says a famished looking Samar Mistry, pointing at an array of unfinished artwork of
domes, minarets and
thermocol murals.
Samar is the only second generation craftsman in the team credited for heading the mammoth task of erecting the skeleton of the pandal. On a high ‘machan’ (dias), three idol makers absorbed in myriad imagination were adroitly hand crafting the chiselled features of lofty half finished clay idols of Durga and her four children on one side, the other side depicting divine moments of Shrishti or creation. In the pandal are staked piles of special clay brought all the way from Bengal.
Sudeep Samanta and Badal, barely in their twenties, account, “We are a group of eight artists hired by a company owned by Kartik Sen. Five of us created the structure and left. Rest of us are embellishing and draping the idols. All of us hail from Nadia Jagoli, a hamlet in West Bengal. We are the first generation artists who are goldsmiths and not traditional kumhars. We deliberately learnt this skill with desire for good fortune, 15000 a month that satiates our needs and creative instincts too.” The Art Company has contracted a deal of 5 lakhs for making idols.
The occupational shift promotes new talent, also saving the traditional art form that suffers the brunt of dwindling generational exchange. Capable of bargaining, the art companies in the venture burdens the cost of investment, thus bailing out poor artisans from worries of procuring costly raw materials. Economic slump and cost escalation apparently is no worry for the organizers. What bothers them is the rain playing spoilsport. Joint Treasurer, Sanjay Choudhary of Bhartiya Yuvak Sangh informs, “We exhorted the use of eco-friendly materials. The designing was themed likewise”.
Marvel to watch out for is the incredible pandal of R R Sporting Club, crafted out of 10 lac clay pots or ‘Chukkars’ used for serving tea now transformed into melting pot of creative expression. A team of 40 artisans from Digha line, Medinapore and Haldia, West Bengal have congregated at Ratu to create the masterpiece.
Shambhu, Samaresh Sahu and Amresh Sahu are the second generation artist in this talented team. They inform in unison, “The pots beaded into garlands by wires are expected to incur a huge weight of 18 tonnes. It involves intense engineering wedded with exemplary skill. The idol of deities being readied in Kolkata will be ferried by truck”.