Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Native objet d’art for your showcase

MADURAI: They give shape to clay and mould them into beautiful figurines. Go to any exhibition in Madurai and you will find these members of women self-help groups. This time, the Dhan Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, has provided exclusive space for SHGs from various districts of Tamil Nadu to sell their unique products as part of the ongoing Madurai Symposium-2007.

Any person with a kind heart to help artisans should visit the Tamukkam Grounds to enhance their showcases with terracotta figurines of elephants, camels and horses, besides aesthetically-designed lamps of various sizes.

There are also batik-painted wall hangings and dress materials, cotton saris and night gowns. For executives and students, there is a wide range of hand-made scribbling pads, folders, pen holders, 2008-planner and diaries in attractive colours.

For those who love native products, the Khadi and Village Industries Commission has put up stalls with attractive shirts in eye-catching packing. Also on display are Aloe vera products.

If you are a person who wants to make the optimum use of your backyard, then buy Rs.10-worth kitchen garden package which has seeds of about a dozen vegetables — from bitter gourd, snake gourd, green, ladies finger to drumstick. “It is sure to yield good and healthy vegetables for small families,” said T. Dhanabalan, chief executive, Kalanjium Thozhilagam.

Move further and you’ll find a stall offering hot ‘sukkumalli’ coffee. The ‘Pattima Samaiyal’ stall will treat your taste buds with a variety of traditional food items.

In another stall, 40-year-old S. Santhanam carves beautiful Vinayaga figures in ‘white erukku root’ in just 20 minutes.

Also on display are the oldest agricultural equipment used to till the land. They include ‘Kayatharu varisai kalappai,’ ‘Uli kalappai,’ ‘Irattai irumbu kalappai,’ cycle-like machine to remove weeds and details of rain-fed agricultural techniques of southern Tamil Nadu and a machine to fill the ‘varappu.’ Surely, it is an exciting and rich experience to have a glimpse of these equipment in an era of mechanised farming.

As many as 100 stalls have been put up by Gandhi Museum, Gandhigram Trust, Lakshmi Seva Sangam, MS Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation, Sarvodaya Sangam and Madurai Green Nursery. There is also a book stall and a stall for first-aid materials.

“The products are sold here at cheap prices by the producers themselves,” said Mr. Dhanabalan.

The exhibition will remain open between 10.a.m. and 9 p.m. till September 30.

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