After all the travel document pictures in previous blog i feel like i need a break.
I have been,for the past 2 weeks,working a bit on food photography.My (self-assigned) project is based on whatever(food related) is within close reach(home!)
I have been reading a lot online/offline in a hope for some brilliant ideas to dawn upon me.I work on it on and off.And i have this strange obsession to calculatively add up everything in my head and that almost gives me an illusion that the job's done!
To counter to this decepption i am kinda making it be a non assignment and infact i have been clicking more often hence!Yes,strange i know!
This is one of my fave tea cups that i brought from ahmadabad.I noticed that the potters here produce some wonderfully designed wares...and there are a lot of collaborations with product designers to exploit the use of this natural element.Some of them can be found at the design shop at NID campus.

Smiles

My most fave times from Ludiya has been with the kids.I have always gotten along with most of kids that i have come across and even baby sit a few of my baby cousins when i was a kid.But it has been a while since i closely dealt with a kid.So i was looking forward to see how i would behave since  there were a lotta kids in ludiya and they were so friendly with the visitors, hovering around the area almost all the time.
My routine in ludiya was laidback and provided me ample time to study the lives of people here.I tried to make the most of this opportunity by trying to infuse myself in all the activities of the family that hosted us.A woman's priority jobs here were to fetch water,clean the house,cook,milk the cow and if she had any spare time after all of it she weaved.
I usually helped korah ben with making the rotlis in the noon and on some evenings.Most of the times she told me not to trouble myself.She probably felt that i am doing it out of obligation.
I have not been much into cooking back at home.Although i love baking and do so quite regularly i never liked cooking(the regular food) on a regular basis.
Subconsciously i did feel morally bound to help her seeing that she cooked for the 5 of us all by herself.
From cutting the veggies and peeling them i decided to stay back to cook rotlis. After spending a few times cooking,i realised how it helped me get to know her better. I always felt a sense of warmth with her. When we had our conversations while cooking i learnt how giving she is.
There are many things about her that i will always remember. When my friend annie came back home with a few embroidery pieces that he had brought from some of the neighbours i saw a wilt on Korah's face . But the very next minute i saw her enquiring if she had brought it for lily(annie's daughter who spent a week at ludiya last year).I felt it is normal for her to be disappointed at this after having showing to annie her own embroideries.But it was as if to counter that negate that previous emotion that she began asking annie more about what she was gonna do with the embroidery.
Hila and hina were my buddies in the hood.We hung out all day.They watched me while cooking with Korah,washin my clothes and even as i read Shantaram :)
They spoke very little,but smiled a lot.I observed most kids there are like that.Shy but they are so easy to understand and be with.

Krishna

Most of them go to schools which is within the hamlet.
Evenings at ludiya resounded with their laughter.Kids here have two names.In Kutchi and
hindi.

Puja and priya

Kamlesh was the first kid i met right when i just about entered the hamlet on my first day.

After his school hours he works with his dad at their wood carving workshop.His little hands were still learning to hold a grip of the instruments.

It was unusual to see him there everyday unlike the other kids who played in the evenings.His mother told me that he infact insists on learning how to carve than to go out and play with kids his age.

I had gone for a walk one afternoon when kamlesh returned home from the workshop hurt with saw dust that had pierced into his foot.Saajni(his mother) tried to get it out of his skin.

He cheered up a little while later.He doent speak much but his smile is so endearing that it tells of a happy world enveloped in it!

Kutchi women

I have been trying to improve my blog all through this week and its a good test for my patience!

Searching for the right layout,editting pictures to use as background,trying various color theme combinations!I think i have reached half way to what i wanna have it look like.I shall leave at this for now.

So,i was talking about the sartorial elegance of kutchi women in the previous post.Here are a few pictures from ludiya.

Most of them are immensely photogenic and i noticed how some women refused to pose for some foreign travellers,but they obliged quite well when i asked them.I still dont know why.

Hila and Hina

Kutchi women are intrinsically hospitable,hard working and make all the heavy jewellery they adorn look so effortless.Their dressing is very similar to that of rajasthan and sindh.

Most of the women are into weaving/pottery which also provides them a decent earning from selling it to the travellers.

Krishna's mom trying to finish an embroidery before she leaves to Delhi for an exhibition by the government

Their jewellery is heavy and there is practically one for every part of the body!
 The disc like thick white bangles are something thats unique to this region.They are almost stitched to the arms and no freedom from it even while sleeping or bathing!

Saajni
Korah(in the pic) was bangle-d  when she turned 7 and has had it since.She told me that they consider it a symbol of womanhood and they change them every year(phew!that was relieving)

Korah ben making us bajre ki roti

Ludiya

The imminent series of posts will be from my trip to Kutch in january where i spent a week at ludiya.(a hamlet close to khavda in great rann of kutch).It was a much needed break which happened impromptu in between a month-long volunteering at an NGO in Ahmadabad.
Khavda is a subsection of an habitable area in the vast deserts of great rann of kutch- one of the two green patches (the one of left) in Rann of Kutch.The beauty of this place is so starkly opposite to the word itself.The vast stretch of dry cracked land,utter absence of vegetation(dont think weed come under this),bereavement of colors and lets not even talk about the weather(luckily for me,i went there just at the right season)
Khavda is a cultural mix of hindus and muslims.And its absolutely beautiful to hear stories of how people have lost out their families to pakistan!Most of them have reconciled with their parted relatives only after tele-communication became accessible.
Apart from a few shops set up on the main road,which are mostly for travellers and those who stop by on their way to the land beyond,khavda has a market space which looks to have organically developed in the narrow alleys which are closer to where most of the population lives.

From inside of a chai stall at the main junction

It was when i went looking for an adapter for my camera charger that i really explored this quaint market place which suffices the needs of the locals(and some;of the travellers,couldnt find an adapter though)Khavda has an unsual air of safety for women travellers. It almost shocked me to be sitting there at this place (next to which lies no mans land) close to indo-pak border, waiting for the bus for almost two hours with my friend and not be stared at.Its hard to draw reasons to how liberating this place is whether its in the unity between hindus and muslims,between weavers and potters or just how they are trying to strike a balance between giving the younger generation an education while still inculcating value of native art and handicrafts.

 Kutchi women take special interest in keeping their homes so beautiful and tidy with much emphasize to their craft roots and traditions.

Ornamented chests
Kutchi mirror work is an imperative to most of the houses.Its not only a great way of preservation but also like a direct way of communicating about it to travellers who stop by.

Mirror work adorning a window

Most of the houses in Ludiya were built during the restoration project by an NGO after the destruction caused by earthquake.They are a cluster of houses with an individual courtyard stitching one with the other offering a vignette of movement and visibility.The over-riding feature of their set-up is that the functions are separated in individual spaces connected together by a work triangle of sorts.

The Kutchi way of preserving art extends to their sartorial elegance.I do not have enough pictures to dissect the uniqueness of their dressing up.But i will be posting pictures of kutchi women i shot in Ludiya and a small pottery hamlet neighbouring it.

I was too busy soaking up the mystical peace of the place and imbibing from the people to really have myself interrupt with any kind of urge to click at every possible opportunity .It was deliberate. I chose to use my camera only as a means to document my experiences to show to my family and friends.I may have come back with far lesser pictures than any of the travels i did before this one,but this has been an amazing sojourn which infact was not planned for but happened! And brought this new world closer to me!

Although i am back a couple of weeks ago and mostly the feeling fades away gradually….strangely,not this time!
Rearing to go!