When I met Ghalib

POTTERY INHALES ITS LAST BREATH IN KRAL MOHALLA WATERGAM

QAYOOM MADNI

Imagine what he would have thought of his business, when he learned and took it, to flourish, to promote and what not? The hands worked day night to promote the business. Today the pace of hands is slow, so is the business.

Ghulam Muhammad Kumar took the art of pottery from his father. Then the demand was ample, as people used to have the earthen pots in the kitchen use. Muhammad used to work hard during nights and the days were utilized to sell pots to people village to village.

 “This is my means of earning bread. I was too young when I learned this skill, and my father and grandfather were also doing the same,” Kumar says.

“The trade was like barter system, we sold earthen pots and people in turn were paying paddy, pulses and other household items” Muhammad says dropping his head.

Though the profit was not very high, still he managed keep the business and live life comfortably.

Muhammad, 64 lives in Kral Mohalla of north Kashmir’s Rafiabad area of watergam. With eyes sunk and wrinkles on the face and forehead, he can be seen glued in the corner of his lawn rotating the rooter to prepare the final product. His hands tremble while holding the rod as the strength has gone with the age. He talks like child. The front portion of teeth is gone.

Today the business of pottery is slowing down owing to mass production of the machine made utensils. The people like Muhammad are rendered jobless. There are few takers of handmade utensils.       

“Potters work has declined to large extent, due to availability of modern wares and people prefer these items.” Says Muhammad as he seems dissatisfied with the job.

Kral mohalla once a full-fledged population of potters has turned down to a few. “Many Years back we used to place mass of earthen ware stock in hand-carts to deliver products to customers by walking door to door. But now the practice has ended-up drastically in the village.”

The young generation of the village has turned to other professions like carpentry, mechanics, Pipe Fittings etc.  

“The younger generation has its worries. We cannot make good earnings out of this work (Pottery). It will hardly fetch us two meals a day. Further there are no takers” says younger son of the village Aadil Ahmad.

However people have their own choice of choosing the machine made goods, “It is due to durability and reliability in the machine made utensils that people prefer them over earthen ware which are so fragile that anything can happen to them at any time”, Says a house wife Mehmodah added that we prefer to buy Cooper, Plastic, steel from the market.

The only hope over which the potters were living was the use of earthen wares in marriages to serve curd and use earthen pots to place plants in them, but the last hope is also replaced by plastics and disposable material.

Ends#