The toy story: fading art of Channapatna toys of Karnataka

Between the bustling cities of Bangalore and Mysore, in the Ramanagara district nestles a small town, "Gombegala Nagara" or "Gombegala Ooru" meaning; a land of toys. The name may not ring the bell for some, but most of us would have seen the colorful, handmade lacquer wooden toys; the reason for which the town derived its name and is famous for the world over. 

This charming little town of Channapatna is the birthplace of a more than 200-year-old tradition of the environment-friendly, precious craft of Channapatna toy making.   The beauty of Channapatna toys lies in being lightweight yet strong, their colors, simplicity of the form, smooth texture, curved contours, the inherent nature of "learn with fun" concepts, and exquisite craftsmanship. 

The moment one enters Gombegala town, one can't help noticing charming little toy-making units confined within homes. Channapatna toy-making craft has a rich history that goes back centuries. The most alluring part of this craft is that it is a small-scale industry that involves generations of knowledge, unique skill sets, and special techniques. The Channapatana toys have made a distinct mark in international markets and enjoy protection under Geographical Indication (GI). 

 

The process of making Channapatna toys: 

The Channapatna toy-making process is time and labor-intensive work. These days the toys are made with woods like sycamore, cedar, pine, teak, and rubber albeit, the soft ivory wood remains the preferred material for the toys. This handcrafted toy-making process is elaborate and takes months from start to finish. It involves seasoning (which usually takes two or three months), cutting, carving (on a lathe, buffed with sandpaper or cactus leaf to obtain a smooth finish), and applying lacquer/color. The artisans use vegetable dyes on the toys to ensure they are safe for use by the children. Artisans of both manual and mechanical units make non-toxic, non-chemical environment-friendly colors.

The artisans and entrepreneurs associated with the Channapatna toys craft feel the need for the town to be recognized for its woodcraft and not just wooden toys. According to them, the history of Channapatna dates back to time immemorial! Channapatna was known for a range of wooden artifacts. Things for everyday use enjoyed a place of pride among the elite class. The wooden walking sticks with elegant handles and the umbrellas with curved handles were considered a symbol of prestige and royalty. 

For the last few years, the Channapatna toy-making industry has suffered heavily. With the advent of technology and markets, flooding with cheap, machine-made Chinese toy options, demand for this craft went on a steady decline, affecting the artisans depending solely on this craft. There were about 20,000 artisans involved with this craft two decades back. But with the slump in demand, most artisans left the industry and took up other employment options for survival. 

Another crucial aspect affecting this industry is better employment options in the nearby cities. Being situated near two major cities of the state, artisans easily find better opportunities with better earnings. They are unwilling to take any chances by sticking to the craft that can’t guarantee their safe future. Hence the young generation of craftsmen families loathes entering this industry owing to its dwindling fate. 

  

While a few enterprising entrepreneur-manufacturers are working towards withstanding competition and reviving the export market, banking on superior quality, safe construction, and material, there is a need for greater support from the state and central government. The craftsmen are also trying to adapt to the market trends by making artifacts and jewelry catering to contemporary demands. 

Many traditional crafts have suffered due to a lack of support and viability. If we don't understand the value of this beautiful craft and encourage it, there is a danger of the art form becoming extinct like so many others that we have already lost. 

 

*The photographs in the article are taken from Google and not mine. 

 

 

Good bye 2020 ! Thanks for the lessons !!

Image from Google 

For the last two weeks, my WhatsApp messages are buzzing with holiday pictures from friends. Facebook/Instagram are no different stories. It feels great to see those pictures indicating some semblance of "normalcy" return to life! However, I can't help thinking about the time when we finally get rid of sanitizers, masks, protocols of maintaining social distance and be able to venture out without an iota of worry or care and meet our family and loved ones.

2020 has been a complete blur! And now that it is about to end, its scars are going to be etched in our minds forever. The year has been a painfully challenging time for most of us. A year ago, the world was all set to celebrate the new year with dreams and hopes in heart and a joyous spirit!

Alas, the new year started with the news of Sars Covid-19, and it rapidly spread globally. The world has spent an entire year fighting Covid and still continues to. A tiny virus wrought disruption in our lives and how! Before one could comprehend the seriousness of the situation, there came rigorous lockdown wreaking havoc for the economy. How can one forget the inhuman crisis and exodus of migrant workers? While we still continue our crusade against the pandemic, the count of deaths caused so far has reached lakhs. Yes, this has been a painful reality to comprehend and live with. 2020 made us go through one challenge after another. From Nature's fury - the thunderstorms, floods, wildfires, locust swarms, volcanic eruptions, or political unrest, the year felt like a series of horrors! No wonder Time magazine calls the year "The worst year ever."

As we slowly limp back to the "unlocked" world with the gut-wrenching stories of the loss of loved ones deeply buried in our hearts, the world appears to be still bleeding with the disruption. There is clearly a monumental shift from the world we have known so far. As the new "normal" of work, business, travel, and life, in general, unfolds each day, the economy is slowly limping back too. There is a constant struggle in coming to terms with our new reality; the need to learn to live with the virus till the vaccine is finally accessible to one and all.

Yes, we are learning to adapt to this paradigm-bending new world, still trying to heal ourselves. And while we are learning to move on, let's not forget some important lessons this pandemic taught us: 

This year has given us a rare opportunity to pause and reflect on who we are and where we are headed as a human race. 

Our outlook towards life has changed; in the way we perceive, act, and respond. We may not realize it, but we are witnessing a turning point that has altered our lives forever.

 

The countless stories of the unsung heroes who went above and beyond the call of duty and served have been truly inspiring!

The pandemic made us test our resilience, patience, and strength. It is fascinating to observe human beings adapt to life-threatening situations and find coping mechanisms. Social media has indeed served as a boon helping people connect at different levels. 

The year has highlighted the transient nature of life and compelled us to realign our life in general. 

The most important lesson for the world this pandemic has imparted is the importance of human connection.

 

2020 has also revealed a lot about me. The work-life balance has not been easy to maintain without domestic help. It tested my strength and pushed me to achieve things that I never knew were possible. It has been a blessing spending time with my family. 2020 made me grateful for all the blessings that are usually taken for granted. The year made me realize what a privilege being alive is! 

As the world gets busy with welcoming the year 2021, let's not forget the pandemic is not going to disappear at the stroke of 12 on new year's eve. We still have a long way to go before the pandemic is finally over. All we need to do to emerge safe and alive from this calamity is to pause and ask ourselves what were we chasing all this while and was it worth all the pain? 

Before I close this last article for the year 2020, here is wishing all the readers of this blog a happy, healthy, meaningful, prosperous, and peaceful year 2021! Stay healthy, stay safe. 

Stepping into the "new normal" !

The lockdown has finally lifted. Life is slowly getting out of oblivion after almost three long months since the COVID outbreak. The initial panic has subdued, and a sense of surrender and acceptance has set in. The new "normal" of work, business, travel, and life, in general, is being written each day while the economy is slowly limping back.

Our struggle for these past few months to emerge strong has taken its toll. While we make efforts to cope with the new normal, thinking about the basic survival going forward in this changing world that looks completely different in a matter of just a few months! 

Amidst these extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, we all have changed in our outlook towards life; in the way we perceive, act, and respond. We may not realize it, but we are witnessing an epoch-making moment; a history in making, a turning point that has altered our lives forever!

Who would have thought that simple, routine tasks like venturing out to buy essentials would feel nothing less than an adventure! With the masks and gloves on, fingers crossed, and our hearts filled with trepidation, this is how we would go out henceforth in this "new" world. 

One feels a bit of anxiety about maintaining a safe distance during interactions. A sense of unease is evident in the eyes of people as there is an awkwardness about not being able to extend simple courtesies like shaking hands and hugging. The pandemic has pushed these very basic human gestures into a "danger" zone, and we have no option but to adapt and change the way we interact and socialize.

The normalcy of the past is quickly fading away. As the days blur into one another, laced with all-pervading anxiety, it gives a sense of living in a time warp. Having lost a sense of continuation of the time, we are losing track of the calendar. 

The streets have opened but are bereft of their soul. There are few people on the roads and the rhythm of life on the streets seems to have lost its balance.  That quintessential, fascinating hum and din, that constant clamour, the strong smells that assail all the senses, all these features that serve as the background and look like neverending scrolls of life have gone blank!  

While we struggle to come to terms with our new reality, there is a deep longing for our seemingly mundane, old routines and simple joys of life like;

taking a walk on the beach with bare feet, 

inhaling the smell of the ocean, 

visiting art galleries and museums and witness art that grows over you, 

moving about freely at the public places and smiling at complete strangers,

spontaneous conversations that forge new friendships,

take a stroll around the city for street photography,

long drives with family on the weekends,

travel to different places, 

visiting the spa, 

meeting friends for lunch and gossip,

a warm hug from a special someone on a date, 

lying on the grass, covered with fresh dew, just because

sitting on a park bench, exhausted, after a long walk and observe people passing by

being part of a crowd, 

going for a movie, play or cultural event,

words that warm your heart, 

lines from the books that stay with you,

music that keeps playing in your mind,  

making a list of "things to do' for the day and fussing over it...

Yes, what would one not give to resume all that we love doing,  just like the times before the COVID paralyzed our life? 

As we adapt to the "new normal" and heal ourselves from this experience, let's not forget that life is driving this monumental shift as a sign of something bigger, much significant for us to realize. We are given this rare opportunity to pause and reflect on who we are, where we are headed, and reconnect with our inner self and life and find our true purpose. 

  

Reflections during the Covid 19 lock down

Historian of medicine, Charles Rosenberg said, 

“Epidemics start at a flash in time, proceed on a stage limited in space and duration, follow a plot line of increasing revelatory tension, move to a crisis of individual and collective character, then drift toward closure.” 

Rosenberg's argument stresses how epidemics put pressure on the societies they strike. The sudden strain makes visible fault lines in latent structures in societies/nations that might not be evident otherwise. As a result, epidemics end up serving as sampling devices for social analysis. They reveal what matters to society and whom it values. 

What is happening around the world since COVID 19 epidemic has struck, has caught us all off guard, exposing lacunae in the way we live and function with painfully misplaced priorities as society/nation.  It has been more than two months and the ugly truth of repercussions on the economy and human costs of the epidemic and the lockdown have started to emerge with gut-wrenching stories of migrant workers, starvation, death, appalling neglect of right to basic sanitation facilities, public healthcare policies, unemployment and complete loss of income taking an increasingly serious turn disrupting life with scary uncertainty. 

The world outside is nothing like we have experienced before being engulfed by covid and as we continue our secluded lives from homes, the coronavirus continues to play havoc with the world. 

These are frustrating times we are living and working under varying degrees of social restrictions. We do not know when and how the Covid-19 pandemic will end and all that is left at present is to speculate about the seismic shift in geopolitical power and its long-term economic impact the epidemic will enforce globally. 

We're in the midst of paradigm-bending times and whether we like it or not, we are making history. We are all redefining the way we live; by force, design, or by choice, and the way we instill significant changes and transform as a society will have a great impact on the kind of world we will experience after this epidemic is finally over! 

What kind of world that would be I wonder!

Our routinely fast-paced modern lives are stressful. We have plenty of options and diversity than ever before yet we go on with life as if running after some insatiable chase; moving like addicts into an unheard, unseen rhythm of uncontrolled chaos! At home or work, we are constantly working and multitasking. 

These last two months have suddenly granted us that "alone time" we seem to always yearn for. Ever since the lockdown was declared, social networking sites have been buzzing with various challenges. It is fascinating to observe how human beings adapt even in the toughest situations and find coping mechanism; be it posing in front of the camera in fineries, posting travel pictures, sharing recipes of homemade exotic food, post pictures of pets or write poems/stories or create videos and interact with the world, social media has served as a boon for many.

One of the greatest inspirations has been from seemingly ordinary people, many unsung heroes who have gone out of their way and beyond their means and capacity to reach out to people in need.

My mailbox is flooded with invitations to join webinars, talks, lectures on every possible topic under the Sun. People have been acquiring new skills, joining new courses and there has been constant bombarding of "productive things to do" and turn "struggle into greatness" as the cliche goes on various platforms. I have ended up doing none of it simply because I didn't feel the need.  

While juggling work, household chores, and other things I have stayed withdrawn in my shell; silently observing the world, each day as it goes by, admiring the bluer skies, cleaner air, empty, greener streets, listening to the chirping of birds, and connect with myself and family, making the most of the time together. This blog has been in a stupor of a sort since the last two months as the circumstances demanded my priorities change too. 

We have a long way to go before the new "normal" sets in and we are back to our routines, free to go out and socialize the way we used to. But let's not forget, as a race we have reached this tragic stage because while chasing our dreams, somewhere we completely forgot to take care of ourselves, our society, our nations, and above all, our beautiful blue planet! We became callous about our natural resources and environment. Blinded with ambitions, we simply forgot that Nature always finds a way when its balance is threatened. 

All we can do to come out of this calamity safe and alive is to pause and ask ourselves, "what were we chasing all this while? Was it worth all the pain?" If we answer these questions truthfully and mend our ways, we can hope for a rainbow at the end of a distant horizon.  

Chanderi, the historic town of warp and weft!

During my heritage tour to Madhya Pradesh last month, I visited the weaver cluster of Chanderi; a small town near the banks of the Betwa river in Ashok Nagar district, and my dream of meeting weavers of saree finally came true! There is something alluring about witnessing a weaver immersed at the loom, transforming cotton/silk pods/threads into one of the most celebrated traditional garments; a handwoven saree! Visiting the Chanderi weaver cluster was an eye-opener for a passionate saree lover and handwoven saree collector like me.

The echoes of sound made by looms from every house of the "bunkar moholla" (weavers' colony) makes one realize that Chanderi is a town of weavers and livelihood of majority of the population is dependent on the centuries-old traditional business of textile weaving. The artisans of Chanderi weaving are predominantly Muslims from Julaha community, Kohlis and a few are from other backward class communities. There are groups within the various weaver clusters of Chanderi that continue to preserve exclusive traditional knowledge of art of weaving passed down upon them through generations. These weavers have great lineage of craft, skill, creativity and experience which is unique and difficult to recreate in power loom versions of Chanderi. 

A Weaver of Chanderi working on his pit loom 

We live in times when the markets are flooded with cheap power loom/machine-made reproductions of almost all the traditional handwoven sarees and textiles, a hazard that has put the survival of traditional hand loom industry on the brink. 

That's me flaunting my Chanderi saree 

Traditionally, Chanderi cloth was woven using hand-spun cotton thread that was brought from other parts of the country. The practice of using hand-spun cotton thread was discontinued when mill spun threads became commercially more viable. The mill spun silk threads were used to keep the sheen of the sarees, its inherent characteristic intact. It is a visual delight to watch a weaver create "butti/butta" manually inserting the motif in the body of the saree, using extra yarn, that reminds one of embroidery.   
  

Chanderi as a town has played a pivotal role in history of Indian handwoven textiles since centuries. Its geographical advantage of being located between the trade route that connected the town to ports of Western India from Gujarat, Mewar, Malwa, central India and many regions from Deccan, opened up great opportunities for the textile weavers to thrive. Chanderi came under rule of various dynasties like Bundela Rajputs, Malwa Sultan, Mughals and Marathas who patronized hand woven textiles of the region. Chanderi thus started being considered an important economic zone flourishing with business, a conglomeration of weaver communities adapting with time, producing one of the finest handwoven textiles of India known world over for its super fine, soft, sheer fabric with gold and silver threads, the world-famous "Chanderi saree". 

History of Chanderi weaving:

Madhya Pradesh was one of the most significant places for hand woven textiles from 7th century and 2nd century BC.Thanks to different rulers; their influence, patronage and promotion from royal families of Baroda, Indore, Gwalior, Kolhapur, Nagpur, and beyond and the boom in finest quality raw cotton, (Gossypium arboreum - Cotton native to Northwest India and Pakistan. It is said this variety of cotton was used by the Harappan civilization of the Indus valley in the production of cotton textiles*) exquisite hand-woven Chanderi reached its zenith earning its due place in world of Indian handwoven textiles. The lustrous weave became renowned outside India and was exported to many parts of the world winning hearts of textile aficionados. Chanderi became part of celebrations and festivities and important mark of nobility. 

Chanderi sarees, fabric and Geographical Indication 

Protected under Geographical Indication of Goods (registration and protection), Chanderi sarees and fabric (its unique design and fine silk yarn used for the weaving) cannot be copied.

Current status of Chanderi weaving  

Unlike a few handwoven sarees/textiles in India, demand of Chanderi has been on decline. There have been instances when due to lack of demand, many weavers were forced to take up other employment options. The high cost of handwoven products and exploitation by the middlemen ruined life of many traditional craftsmen and artisans.  

The central government, the state government of India along with a few NGOs have joined hands and started initiatives to promote this heritage weave. "Bunkar Vikas sangh", "Tana Bana", "Mission Chanderiyaan" not only train the weavers on various aspects like demand estimation, design intervention, marketing, order generation and distribution of finished products  but also aim to bring digital literacy in lives of weaver community to enhance their skills and reach to the wider markets.  

Every time a loom is shut out of desperation of a weaver, significant part of our heritage disappears forever. That one piece of fabric/saree that we admire is a result of decades of practice of special techniques, evolution of design, cultural history and refined aesthetics. If Chanderi weavers don't get our support, it will be one more precious weave fading away with time. Should we allow Chanderi weave to meet such sacrilegious consequence? Let's wake up before it is too late.   

* Information source: Wikipedia