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| Modern utensils forced potters to leave profession, earn livelihood through other means | | Art of pottery breathes its last in valley | | Javid A Malla
SRINAGAR, Oct 26: Visualize what he would have contemplation of his business, when he learned and obtained it, to grow, to support and what not? The hands worked 24 hours to promote the business. Today the pace of hands is slow, so is the business.
Ghulam Muhammad, 67 lives in Kral Mohalla of north Kashmir's watergam town of Rafiabad.
With fissures on face and forehead, he can be seen bonded in the middle of his courtyard rotating the rooter to prepare the ultimate artifact. His hands tremor while holding the stick in one hand as the potency has gone with the age, still serves bread earner of his six family members through this skill.
"This is my means of earning livelihood. I was very young when I become skilled at this art, and my father and grandfather were also doing the same," Mohammad said. "The trade was like bargain system, we sold earthen pots and people in turn were paying paddy, pulses and other household items" Muhammad says putting his head down.
Though the earning was not very lofty, still he deals with the business and live life at ease.
Ghulam Muhammad Kumar took the art of pottery from his father. Then the demand was sufficient, as people used to have the earthen pots in the kitchen use. Muhammad used to work hard during nights and the days were consumed to sell pots to people village to village.
Today the business of pottery is slowing down owing to heap production of the machine made utensils. The people like Muhammad are rendered jobless. There are only some takers of handmade utensils.
"Potters work has declined to large extent, due to availability of modern wares and people prefer these items," says Muhammad as he seems dissatisfied with the job.
Kral mohalla once a full-fledged population of potters has rolled down to a few. "Many Years back we used to place collection of earthen ware stock in hand-carts to bring products to customers by walking door to door. But now the practice has finished-up hugely in the village."
The young generation of the potter community has turned to other professions like carpentry, mechanics, Pipe Fittings etc.
"The younger generation has its reservations. We cannot make good earnings out of this work (Pottery). It will hardly fetch us two meals a day. Further there are no takers" says younger son of the village Aadil Ahmad.
Though people have their own choice of choosing the machine made goods, "It is due to durability and reliability in the machine made utensils that people prefer them over earthen ware which are so fragile that anything can happen to them at any time", Says a house wife Mehmodah added that we prefer to buy Cooper, Plastic, steel from the market.
The use of earthen pots in marriages to serve curd and earthen pots to place plants in them was only hope over which the potters were living, but the last hope is also reinstated by plastics and disposable items. |
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