SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, CHENNAI

2 TIMES CITY OCTOBER 10, 2010

Finding your
place in the A touch of Bengal in Chennai
Durga Puja Would Be Incomplete Without These Idolmakers Who Bring Clay From The Ganga
sun with clarity Devparna Acharya | TNN
Pics: C Sueresh Kumar

T
he auditorium is abuzz with ac-
tivity. A few men decorate the en-
trance with flowers while others
put up signboards. Amidst the
commotion, a group of men work
in utter concentration. They paint
the eyes of goddess Lakshmi, their
eyes moving back and forth from
the idol to the palate of colours.
Jiban Krishna Pal and his team
of sculptors have been coming
from Hooghly in West Bengal to
Chennai every year since 1994 to
make idols for Durga puja. “An ac-
quaintance referred me to the Ben-
gal Association here,” says Jiban,
who is busy at work in T Nagar. “I
have been every year since then.”
For three months every year,
Chennai is home to sculptors
Varghese Kallada

THE DEMAND FOR IDOLS HAS GONE

UP IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS. IN 1994,
ONLY A FEW IDOLS WERE NEEDED.
THIS YEAR, ARTISANS LIKE JIBAN
KRISHNA PAL HAVE MADE 30.
DESIGNS IN CLAY: An artisan gives final touches to a Lakshmi idol at Bengal Association office; (below left) Jiban Krishna Pal and Rinku Pal (second
Making career are often a reflection of com-
prehension, and not interest.
like Jiban, who are brought
down by the Bengali communi-
picture from right) have been coming down regularly during Durga puja as their traditional skills are sought after by the Bengali community here

choices is Many homes have witnessed

complete meltdowns when an
difficult at an offspring who has been scor-
ing 90% in physics announces
age when you that he wants to do a BA in his-
tory. That is as bad as declar-
are agonising ing that you plan to earn a liv-
ing playing the harpsichord.
over whether If the parents go into acute
shock it’s simply because they
to get a tattoo are scared witless that their
child could end up as a 42-year-
old who still needs an al-
Neenu Ittyerah lowance. Fields such as medi-
cine and engineering guaran-
ty in the city. “We want the idols
to look authentic,” says Dr An-
jan Chakraborty, president of
the association.
“Durga’s idol can’t be made
with any mati (clay). You need
Ganga’s mati or else it will crack,”
says Jiban, adding that they bring
20 to 25 bags of it every year to
fashion the idols. “Paint, hair,
clothes — everything is brought
from Kolkata,” he says.
Not far away, Rinku and Deven
Pal, idol-makers from Baghda, are
hard at work. “Our father Kishori
Mohan Pal first came to Chennai
30 years ago and we are continu-
ing the tradition,” says Deven.
“We were not ready to take on this
order but the association mem-
bers insisted and we have just a
day to finish it,” he adds, before
he goes back to shaping the fin-
gers of the goddess.
Making an idol takes about 15
days. “We start by shaping the idols
with bamboo sticks and hay. Then
they are given a clay coating and
left to dry. A coat of clay is applied
after a day or two,” says Jiban.
According to him, this is the
trickiest part. “We coat it with plas-
ter of paris only if the shape is
flawless,” he says. “And we pay
great attention to the facial fea-
tures — eyes, cheeks and nose —
to ensure they are perfect,” he
adds. Then the idols are painted.
“Every goddess has a different
colour. Kali can be only blue while
Durga is always painted pink. Sim-
ilarly, we have colours for Ganesh,
Lakshmi and Saraswati,” says
Rinku. The paints and dyes are
made by the sculptors. “After all,
it is for the goddess and her fami-
ly,” they say, with reverence.
artisans. “When I first came here
in 1994, I was learning to sculpt.
The demand for idols has gone
up in the last five years. “In 1994,
Then there was the excitement
and adrenaline rush in making
the demand was only for a few
idols. This year, I have made 30,”
the best idols,” says Jiban. “Now
I am so sure of my strokes that I
says Jiban, whose idols are sup-
plied to Kalpakkam, Kolathur and
can paint the goddess’ eyes with
my eyes closed.”
Tiruchi. “My father, who is in
Coimbatore, will visit Vellore and
Once the Durga idols are
moved out of their sheds and into
Tiruchi as the Bengali communi-
ties have invited him,” says Rinku.
the various pandals across the city,
these men are forgotten. But the
Apart from the money they goddess comes again next year,
make, working on the idols is also and so do the artisans.
a matter of great pride for these devparna.acharya@timesgroup

H
aving grown up
with a mortal fear
of mathematics
and physics, I al-
ways sank to my knees when
a physicist, mathematician or
engineer passed me by. I was
convinced that the reason why
these subjects induced trepi-
dation and torpor in me was
because I had judgmental
teachers, a genetic disinclina-
tion for the sciences, and in-
adequate cuddling during my
growing years. I was therefore
surprised when I read on the
tee you jobs. This is because
you can always count on peo-
ple to live irresponsibly and
keep your hospitals full, and
we are always going to need
better bridges, locomotives, and
computers because chances are
that we didn’t do a very good
job on them in the first place.
It takes time for a child to
figure out what interests him
or her, and we don’t give our
children that time, probably
because it’s not ours to give.
Every year, millions of
youngsters come bursting out

net that the Duke University
Talent Identification pro-
gramme had discovered that
boys had higher abilities in
maths and scientific reason-
From pillar
of engineering, medical and dustrial photographer Ashok Kr-
management schools and ishnaswamy are part of the core
snap up the jobs. group. Once an idea is finalised, the
Can we let our children research starts. The group finds
flower slowly in the sun learn- time during hectic workdays to read

ing while girls had higher abil-
ities in verbal reasoning and
writing skills. See, that ex-
plains why women can argue
their way out of any situation,
while men can calculate (at the
speed of light) whether there
is anything to be gained in ar-
guing at all.
But jokes apart, what is it
about these subjects? Why are
thousands of kids tying them-
selves up in reef knots to make
it into engineering school? Do
so many people really like en-
gineering? Probably not. It’s
just that we have to choose our
careers at an age when all we
care about is whether the
to post
ing sociology or political sci- tomes on art history. Photos are shot
ence, or deciding between ecol- and complex points fine-tuned by
ogy and the visual arts? But seniors Dhivakar and Bharadwaj
‘Will they just keep flowering before the information is turned
or will they eventually bear into a blog post.
fruit?’ is an apprehension par- They don’t leave any stone un-
ents don’t want to have to face. turned to get what they want ––
I guess teenagers need to whether it means carrying a fellow
wake up and smell the coffee. volunteer on the shoulder to get a bet-
It’s a tough world, and that guy ter shot of a sculpture or setting aside
who made it into engineering
school is going to be driving a
A group of professionals pursue their vacation plans with family to go
scouting temple ruins in interior
Honda Civic before you hail
your next autorickshaw.
passion for ancient architecture through Tamil Nadu.
The efforts have paid off, says
So if that sight is going to
upset you, then think again.
poetryinstone.in, a bilingual blog WINDOW TO THE PAST: Volunteers go on field trips to collect information Dhivakar. “We discuss old hymns and
construction techniques daily,” he
It takes longer to be the best malai, has text in both Tamil and The effect is quite dramatic at says. A post on a cave in Magalra-
wildlife photographer than an Sandhya Soman | TNN the non-profit site. All the group has English. “We mostly write about pil- times. A post on ‘How Big is the Big japuram got a comment from a Swiss
engineer. Trying to get a tiger is a passion for ancient history, sculp- lars, gopurams and other fringe Temple in Thanjavur?’ has a pho- national who sent a geo-tagged map

peach fuzz on our chins will
ever turn into John Abraham
stubble or whether we should
get that tattoo on the shoulder
or the hip. You make this cru-
cial decision at a time when
you are pretty clueless and,
sadly enough, your parents
could be too. Most of us pre-
sume that our kids should pur-
sue the subjects he scores high
marks in, forgetting that marks
to pose for you, without be-
coming its dinner, is actually
easier than selling that pho-
tograph to buy your own din-
ner. Some soul searching re-
garding career choices is
worth it because getting paid
to do something you love is as
good as it gets.
(The writer is a government
official who lives in Thiru-
vananthapuram)
T
he ideas are from Singapore
and Chennai, the planning
done over the internet, pho-
tographs taken in the Cauvery belt
and the final product published in
the virtual world. That’s the story of
poetryinstone.in, a bilingual blog on
south Indian temple architecture run
by a group of professionals scattered
across the globe.
“We have no formal degrees in
art,” says S Vijay Kumar, who runs
ture, and Tamil literature.
“We were brought together by the
lively narration in Kalki Krishna-
murthy’s historical novel ‘Ponniyin
Selvan’,” he says. After numerous
discussions on the novel, Vijay start-
ed writing about sculptures on a
Tamil e-group. Drawn by his writ-
ing, IT professional Thirumalai V
asked Vijay to start a blog to reach
out to more people.
The site, designed by Thiru-
structures,” says Vijay.
The narration is simple, almost
story-like, and supported by visu-
als. “Our objective is to attract
youngsters,” says Satheesh Kumar
R, a Kuwait-based engineer, who
chips in with technical expertise.
“Vijay picks interesting anecdotes
to keep the reader hooked. He uses
props like key chains to show the
relative size of a sculpture or a
structure,” says Satheesh.
tograph showing an elephant next
to a traditional door guardian. The
animal is dwarfed by the huge sculp-
ture, bringing out the mammoth
scale of the temple.
Each post takes a few hours to 15
days to create, says IT professional
Arvind V. “Once Vijay gets an idea,
we discuss it over chat or mail,” says
builder-scholar Sundhar Bharadwaj.
Writer V Dhivakar, IT profes-
sional Shriram Rajaram and in-
of similar sites across India. Young
readers not only post comments but
also send in photographs of neigh-
bourhood temples.
Shriram says readers have start-
ed looking at temples as more than
just pilgrimage spots. “They are
places where one can learn about
engineering, architecture, mythol-
ogy, history, and ancient ways of
life,” he says.
sandhya.soman@timesgroup.com

> URBAN LONGING S -

10 know of are in medical college,and lack of legal title to their unauthorised

No, Sir, slums are

more than 40 doing engineering cours- plots. Without title,they fear demolition,
es. Dharavi is inclusive and cosmopoli- lack the confidence to build pukka
tan,home to the poor and the better- structures,and cannot mortgage their
off , and most people are self-employed. land to get loans. But in India, democra-

not j ust eyesores

Dharavi stands as testimony to the cy ensures that governments rarelyrarely
sweat and toil of the poor and the pul- demolish shanty towns; indeed they
sating energy of entrepreneurs.” regularize many encroachments before
This is not a tale of despair and every election. More land has been dis-
humiliation. It is an inspiring story of tributed to the poor by governments
Many large villages will turn into towns if only we provide them the poor people who have risen through through this route than through formal
infrastructure for job creation. But migration cannot be wished away either. grit and determination,seizing urban poverty alleviation schemes.
And it is equally specious to think that the slums which grow as a result are opportunities. It’s another matter that I am oversimplifying, of course. Many
hell-holes of despair. Dharavi is now Mumbai’s biggest industrial centre, the government has been woefully slum-dwellers have been moved to new
humming with activity after all its famed textile mills have closed. It has remiss in providing infrastructure and sites far from their workplaces. In other
15,000 one-roomed factories, producing $ 600 million of goods and social services. But these are govern- cases slums are controlled by mafia
services. More important,it is inclusive and cosmopolitan. ment failures everywhere, not just in slumlords. Nevertheless,slums have
slums. been dynamos of preductivit social
In the 19th centur Charles Dickens mobility and poverty reduction.
> Swam inathan S Ankles aria Aiyar more slums. These are the entry points have migration to metropolitan cities being a hub of despair,it is now painted horrendous pictures of So,by all means let us have structur-
of the poor into urban havens of oppor- alone. Indeed,many large villages will Mumbai’s biggest industrial centre, London’s slums,and American writers al reforms that yield better-governed,
hat constitutes tunity. When urban land costs crores turn into towns if only we provide them humming with activity after all its bemoaned the slums of New York. better-run cities. We need better roads,
__ _
__ __

______
___
___
W the perfect city?
Ii’s easy to make
a list of utopian must-
haves: electricity and
water round the clock;
unpolluted air; plentiful
__________
per plot,the poor can’t dream of buying
land. Cities lack the funds for even
basic facilities, let alone massive public
housing. So,rural migrants encroach on
public land, creating shanty towns.
These slums are eyesores: just looking
infrastructure. This will be urbanisation
without migration.
Some optimists think that the
answer is to make rural areas prosper-
ous. This is escapism. India has 160 mil-
lion hectares of cultivable land for 1,250
famed textile mills have closed. Dharavi
has 15,000 one-roomed factories,pro-
ducing $ 600 million of goods and serv-
ices.
These writers failed to see that the fun-
dament al dynamism of slums would in
time convert shanty-towns into prize
real estate. Many Indians make the
same mistake about our own slums.
Some prefer the Chinese route of bull-
electricity and water supply. But if cities
are to perform their critical function of
social mobility we also need more
slums like Dharavi. These should be
improved, upgraded slums,but slums
nevertheless.

road space for cars, bicy-
cles and pedestrians; good
educational and health facilities; lots of
parks and museums. Those with an
institutional mind-set will argue for
elected mayors with strong t ax and
administrative powers,giving them inde-
pendence from callous st ate capitals.
No matter how desirable,such
utopian longings fail to place cities in
the context of a poor,overwhelmingly
rural society. Cities must not be elite
islands in a rural sea of despond. They
must provide income and social ladders
for the poor and unskilled to climb up.
Cities must be havens of opportunity
for those without opportunity in rural
and tribal settings.
This has an implication that will
make many blanch we must have
— —
at them makes urban folk shudder. Yet
this should drive home to the elite how
truly wretched rural India must be if
poor people see more hope in filthy
urban shanties than in the countryside.
Many visitors think the slums of
Kolkata are hell-holes. On the other
hand,visitors are enthralled by the
beauty of Naxalbari,full of green paddy
fields , bamboo groves and ponds. Yet,
invisible to the elite eye,conditions in
Naxalban were horrendous enough to
spark a massive Maoist uprising in 1967.
Many poor folk from Naxalbari migrated
to Kolkata: for them,its supposed hell-
holes were refuges from rural oppres-
sion and a path to prosperity.
If we provide infrastructure to all
small towns, many will become mag-
nets for rural migrants. we must not
million people, one-eighth of a hectare
acre per person. Even if the urban
share of the population doubles from
today’s 30 per cent to 60 per cent, rural
land availability will be just one-third of
a hectare per person. This is a recipe
for endless poverty,and cannot be fixed
by endless subsidies. The rural poor
know this and so migrate,but urban
elites remain in denial. They want the
poor to somehow remain rural and not
inundate their cities. That,to put it sim-
ply,is both callous and escapist.
some people see slums as hubs of
sub-human existence and humiliation.
But it is necessary to see beyond the
surface filth. Dharavi in Mumbai has
long been called the world’s biggest
slum,with six Iakh people crammed
into 175 hectares of swamps. Far from
FUTURE
LAVASA CITIES
m assoc iation ith THE TIMES OF INDIA
SPARC,an NGO dealing with slums,
describes Dharavi well. “Here you will
find an astonishingly wide range of eco-
nomic activity from those who make
— —
idlis to potters to tanners to manufac-
turers of airline cutlery and crockery. In
Dbaravi,there is a place for everybody
and there is always work
alwaysto be found.
There are workers who make only Rs.
300 a month and there are a few few entre-
preneurs who even earn Rs. 300,000 a
month. Today,21 children of Dharavi we
dozing slums and forcing migrants to
return to villages. But I agree with
SPARC that slum redevelopment must
be done in democratic consultation
with slumdwellers.
The government has failed to do
much to uplift the poor, but slums have
done so. Land reforms have failed wide-
ly to legally distribute land to the poor.
But by simply allowing and often legal-
ising unauthorised encroachments,
state governments have distributed
land to millions of poor people. This is
obviously far from ideal: efficient,
benevolent governments would have
done the job much better. But since
governments are neither efficient nor
benevolent,this is a way forward.
The economist, Hernando de Soto,
said the real problem of the poor was
> Swaminathan S Anklesana Aiyar is
known for his ability to demystify eco-
nomics , and he does so mm ost effectively
in his STOI column , Swarninomics ’ He is
the regular Budget expert on Times Now
and ET Now. Stephen Cohen of the
Brookings Institution anointed him
‘India’s leading economic journalist’. He
has been editor of The Economic Times
and Financial Express, and was also the
India correspondent of The Economist for
two decades. He has frequentl y been a
consultant to the World Bank and Asian
IJevelopment Bank.
A ATOl and LAVASA Special Feature
This thought leadership series aims to
present the views of thinkers and opinion
makers on why India needs new cities.