My illuminating experiences @ Peth

The spirit of Independence was in the air when I reached site on the 14^th of August. The artisans and the whole team were busy with the preparation works. Mr.Motiram Ji the village head hoisted the flag on the 15^th morning keeping the tri-colored Indian flag high. The artisans sang and played the Harmonium and Tabla as a part of the celebrations.

When I had to move into the village, I was filled with fear as I knew absolutely nobody or the place as well. It was a great challenge to converse with everyone with the ‘GREAT HINDI” I knew. It was a difficult start though, as days passed by, I made myself comfortable working with the artisans and conversing with them.

Oh! Not to forget I had to teach them to speak in English which was one of the next greatest challenges for me .As I was never a great teacher. I had to find and incorporate newer ideas and prospects to teach them and make the classes interesting to a varied age group of people. The new ideas included playing dumb charades, pictionary, singing, etc. It was a great experience of learning and understanding the life of artisans from a very close quarter.

Dumb charades and Pictionary were so much fun as their way of interpreting things were so very different from the so called “civilized urban citizens”. So many such things made me realize that we make our simple life so very complicated and finally invent solutions to solve the problems we interweave.

The most expected “TUESDAYS – village market” was the day when everybody could freak out to have those hot jalebis, samosas and all the other village delicacies. This was a day of shopping too for the artisans and all the villagers.

The “Boating” @ a dam located nearby the village was a very fearful entertainment to say. It definitely was a very different experience to boat without any skilled boatmen or safety tubes/accessories or any organization that takes care off. Driving along with nature as it can be called.

Moving on to the most important aspect of my learning with the material directly was a great exposure and experience. As days moved along, I learnt to design a staircase, though it might not have proved to be a great success. Working with the material and the hand tools which the artisans themselves used were all a massive exercise. It was easier for me to perceive the bamboo construction techniques from the guest house that was being constructed during my stay there.

To end with, the villagers were very friendly and loving who would invite me to their homes to share their special native delicacies. The village life and the people around kept me occupied throughout the day.

Artisan team I worked with included:

* Amol, Sachin(byle, bomb wala and water tank), Vinay, Santhosh (chotta byle), Gajanand, Yohesh (Guruji), Praveen, Rajanna, Santhosh, Shankar, Surrendar (Style), Sunil and Vasantha Bhayya (caretaker).