Rows of small clay Ganeshas greet you at the entrance of the narrow lanes of Kummari Veedhi, the potters’ colony in the city. Giving shape to the moulds of clay with nimble hands, Venkat Laxmi sits surrounding hundreds of palm-sized idols.
“I have to complete making 50 idols in a day as there is just a day left for the festival to begin,” she says as she hurriedly goes inside to attend to her kitchen work and returns in a jiffy to resume making the idols. Next doors, 55-year-old Potturu Pydamma and her daughter-in-law give shape to a two feet clay Ganesha idol while a toddler crawls around.
Interestingly, this colony which once saw men folks of the family take active role in making pottery and clay products is today going through a role reversal of some sorts. With a majority of men and the next generation taking to other lucrative sources of income, it is the women who have taken up the baton to keep the potter’s wheel spinning.
As the Vinayak Chaviti festival nears, the work picks up pace with the women getting together to meet the growing demand for clay idols in the city.
“This year I made close to 1,000 small and medium-sized clay idols and other clay pots and items used during the festivities. From this week, the orders have started coming in. Though not overwhelming in numbers, we completed a couple of bulk orders for 50 to 100 idols,” says Laxmi. Her husband, who works as a clerk in a private educational institution, has stopped working on pottery. “My father-in-law used to make clay pots and idols till last year. But due to old age and health issues this year he couldn’t take up the work. So I have taken up the work this year,” says Laxmi. While the paltry returns from selling the idols hardly justify the amount of effort put in by these women, they remain relentless in the hope to keep the dying tradition of the colony alive.
“Since childhood I have grown up watching my father work on clay. Now neither my husband nor my son has time for this. But I should make use of whatever I know and support the family in some way,” says Pydamma.“This year, we had to pay ₹ 5,000 for a load of clay from Pendurthi, which is ₹1,500 more than last year. But there is no way to recover that cost. We are only pinning our last hopes on these two days ahead of the festival,” she adds.
