Harmony

Fri, 05/14/2010 - 19:03 — admin

harmony

THOUGH THE PEACH-SKINNED VO-LUPTUOUS WOMEN of his paintings still leave us entranced a hundred years after he first immortalised them on canvas, Raja Ravi Varma's life, artistic sprit and the ethos of his times have never been examined in such minutiae as Rupika Chawla's extravagant book Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India (Mapin; Rs 3,950; 360 pages) does. The book is replete with personal notes, newspaper clippings from the era, letters, period photographs, court records, and anecdotes supplied by his patrons and friends. Light in tone, yet scholarly in terms of the research that went behind it, the book cannot be dismissed as just another book on yet another great artist. Read it to discover the artistic spirit that drove Varma, and the politics and culture that shaped him into a legend.

established eight pottery units in this village of about 1,000 people. She comes here regularly, sitting comfortably cross-legged amid the artisans, sharing their lives, and her ideas. The collaboration has re-sulted in an array of prod¬ucts: door knobs, beads, candles, incense stick stands, bathroom fittings, lanterns, coasters, napkin holders, perfume bottles and decanters along with a variety of tiles, lamps, coffee tables and tableware. And this fine merchandise has not just set cash registers ringing across India and overseas, it has kept the home fires of Kotjewar burning strong and proud. "This is all Baiji's doing," says Lala Ram, a 50-something artisan

According to African wisdom, it takes a village to raise a child. In a dusty hamlet 50 km from Jaipur, it has taken one woman to raise a village. A drive through Kotjewar reveals signs of prosperity—cement houses, the sounds of tele- visions blaring, a sturdy schoolhouse—juxtaposed against the crumbling mud houses and narrow alleyways of the past, preserved almost as a badge of pride to show how far this village has come. The key to Kotjewar's progress is the exquisite blue pottery it produces; it was unlocked by 60 year-old Leela Bordia. Over the years, Bordia has

who was at the vanguard of Kotje war's transformation. "She taught us how to support our families while keeping our heritage alive."

Raised in Kolkata, Leela Bordia moved to Jaipur in 1974 following her marriage to her husband Kamal, an engineer who was in the construc-tion business. Following a stint as a Montessori teacher, she began social welfare work in villages around Jaipur when she chanced upon traditional blue pottery, which was languishing as there were few takers for the rudi¬mentary vases and bowls and repeti¬tive designs. Bordia saw in the art a greater potential to bring about sus¬tainable change. "I didn't want to give people handouts," she says. "I wanted

them to stay in their village and work rather than struggle in the city? She managed to persuade one artisan— Lala Ram—to swim against the tide, while herself completing a one-month course in pottery technique and de¬sign from the US.

It was enough. In 1980, Bordia launched Neerja International (named after her sister). Her creativity came together seamlessly with the tradi¬tional expertise of Lala Ram's family to produce the company's first batch of blue pottery beads, knobs and curios. "I put in the capital and assured them I would buy everything they made," she recalls. "It was a win-win situation for them." The success of Lala Ram's family emboldened others in the vil-

THE PROCESS
Blue pottery is made out of ground quartz. The dough is pressed into moulds and the uni-fied pieces are hand-painted with oxide colours, dipped in clear glaze and fired once in wooden kilns. The process is tedious and time-consuming. Once made, the items cannot be reworked. One can never be sure if the finished product will have the exact shade expected. The smallest mistake could lead to the piece either cracking or turning black.

lage to return to the time-honoured tradition that was further honed by Bordia's computer-generated modern designs and quality control mecha¬nisms. Finally, in 1992, Neerja Inter¬national adopted Kotjewar— it assists the villagers with educational and medical help, life insurance and sup¬port for widows.

"In the process of saving a craft, we have saved the craftspeople and their families," says Bordia with pride. "We never thought of it as a business but a mission." Her entire family is part of this mission. While her husband joined the company soon after she launched it, looking after the finan¬cial, her daughter Aparna is an in¬tegral part of the business today. Son Apurva runs Neerja Software, which also chips in by training young arti¬sans in design tools to improve their product lines.

Bordia turned grandmother this January but she insists the arrival of Myra will not slow her down! "The job is still 24/7 for me," she says. Apart from her continuing crusade to improve the quality and aesthetic ap¬peal of the pottery, Bordia takes one-hour sessions with schoolchildren in Jaipur on craft traditions and is writ¬ing a book on blue pottery. "We must preserve our cultural identity and originality" she affirms. "I can't retire from that!"

Harmony

PRODUCTS