With additional physical attributes given to Ravan effigies, Riya Sharma finds out that the market for these putlas are not confined to Delhi/NCR but travel across international waters
Handle-bar moustaches, pouted pink lips, curly eyelashes and draped in lungi — these are some of the newly donned features of Raavan for this year’s Dussehra. With time, as people started re-interpreting the texts like Ramayan and Mahabhart, variations in effigies of Raavan were bound to happen. What started as lungi for Raavan effigies transitioned to ghagra-frock as everyone calls it is now has come back to the lost lungis. “This time, we have requests from our customers who want the traditional, not modernised look of the great scholar,” shared Golu Ravan vala, Tagore Garden.
Even before getting down from the metro, we could see many effigies lying on the road, footpath — some actually creating a sense of excitement for passersby. When we reached Tagore Garden, it felt as if we had entered into an open gallery — a world of an artists who were busy creating what they do best. Golden glaced paper, pink paper, bamboo sticks, unfinished effigies, it was a common sight as we walked further.
We asked Neeraj how long and what process they follow to make these effigies. “We cut these barks, make the shapes accordingly. We put the glace papers to fill the other details and top of it, we paint colours to give features like curly eyelashes and pink lips,” he said while continuing to cut a bamboo bark.
As nobody can be sure of Delhi’s weather which can completely turn normal things upside down, the craftsmen have made sure that nothing affects their putlas. “Earlier, we used ordinary paper and use ordinary colours. At times when it rained, it spoiled our hard work. This is why, we have used thick glace paper and colours that do not fade or wash away,” said Golu Ravan vala.
Elaborating more on the Raavan physical attributes, he shared, “This is one of the demands of our customers and we also wish to provide realistic features to the effigy,” he shared.
“Not have we only added these minute specifications — we have also made shoulders for our putlas,” pointing to the only lower part of the effigy. As Golu Ravan vala and many like him have been associated with the art of making these Raavans, he told us it takes them as many as two months to complete the whole lot. “I learnt how to make them by observing my elders and now I train young ones to come and learn from us and trust me, they are really interested and able to grasp quickly,” said he.
As we wanted to explore more, we decided to move around when we were awestruck by the size of another putla which almost had three wavy layers of mustache. “The size of the mustache is 12 metres and it takes us almost two days sometimes to complete one effigy but the mooch of this effigy took us one month to complete,”he said.
Besides adding physical traits, the size of the putlas have also been increased. “If earlier, it was about 7 feet, this time we are keeping it around 12 feet,” said Rajesh Khanna Ravan vale.
The effigies that they had for children looked nowhere near to the representation of Raavans we usually see. Instead, to us, they resembled a cartoon. “No, they do not represent any cartoon but the fact is, it is really difficult to make a small mooch from the barks of bamboo tree. So, we decided to keep it simple for children who are actually our main customers,” said Khanna.
Pointing to a very small effigy, who was wearing lungi and looked exactly the same as we all have seen in TV’s Ramayana, he told us that their main customers are children. “Though you cannot add more innovations and variations to a small effigy, yet the demand for small Raavans are more and they cost as less as Rs1,500,” shared Khanna.
When we were leaving the shop, he forced to have a look at his masterpiece which he had made while keeping the menace dengue is creating in the city. Referring to a design in the shape of a mosquito in black colour with his stings, he told us, “This is the dengue mosquito and while the city is planning to burn the effigies of Ravan, we believe that this is also one of the things that should be burnt out. This is our way of creating awareness and we hope the city will rise out of its slumber and take action against the disease.”
When we thought we had seen enough and were about to leave the place, a turn at the end of the road where a man was pasting papers to his Ravan caught our eye. The effigy had the usual attributes with horns twisted outside, a prominent tongue and teeth that were easy to figure out. When we asked, Sonu Ravan vala about the unusual characteristics of his effigy, he said, “Every time I try to come out with something new, this time as everyone was adding more realistic features, I went one step and came up with this.”
To our surprise, we also found out that not only the customers for these putlas are from Delhi and NCR but people from oversees also have a demand for them. “Three days back, we sent our Raavans to Canada, and we have demands coming from Australia as well. We pack them very carefully in bubble wrap and then they are sent via cargo to the respective destination. As a normal Ravan would cost around Rs15000 minimum but while sending oversees, it goes up to Rs2.5-3 lakhs,” Golu concluded.