ranthambore - artisans from kendra and people from shamota

here are some pictures of people from shamota's potter's family.


ramkesh prajapat, mastram meena

ramkanya devi

no, she has never been to any finishing school.

doli bai

bapur meena

why cant this little girl at right not be a "priyanka chopra"? just look at her confident and arresting expression!

here is what i remember of the conversation going on at this time between her and devika, i have translated it to the best i can..


her: i can come to bangalore too, i can make a choolha like this for you at your home


devika: we dont have cows there, how will you get the dung to coat it everyday


her: oh that shouldnt be a problem, like you send parcels from kendra to bangalore, so you can get the dung couriered.

here are the pics from kendra artisans of "dastkar ranthambore". following is a sequence of a lacquer bangle being made.

he has these various "bricks" of colored lacquer.

first he heats up the base, lacquer stick, then puts a base coat, which is that sharp yellow coating on this picture. then he adds coating of the desired color on this heated up base stick end.

ghanshyam

oh no, they dont change colors like that at the end, these are different bangles ;)

and these are the girls working on quilts etc at the dastkar kendra.

mamta

syani

santara

seema

these are no dastakar artisans, just girls bursting into a laughter fit at their own comic act - trying to use umbrellas for shade - while riding an open air jeep. and the umbrellas were about to fly off in the wind, and of course there was no respite from the extreme heat and sun in ranthambore afternoon. they can still manage to have a good time. :)

notice the look on our driver's face, he's not amused at all. quite a contrast from our happy trio.