Artisans around us: Kiranbala Harichandan

A multi-proficient artisan who weaves magic with hands:  Kiranbala Harichandan

Kiranbala Harichandan is the master handicrafts person who runs Seven Diamond Multicraft, that is a producer of handmade items . Situated at Lokeswarpur, Pallahat, Khordha District of Odisha, this organization has been functioning since 2005. Previously, it started with home creations however now their creative work has made its path to diverse stalls in the last fifteen years.

Their products include applique paintings, embroidery, straw art and paddy artwork which is made by trained individuals. They even create pillow covers, sofa covers and bedsheets, which they promote from houses or from stalls at Gopalpur, Bhubaneswar or anywhere else when they get a chance.

Kiranbala, besides being an outstanding artisan, she also gives training to young people at distinctive locations for which she is being paid by the government. She has 15+ artisans working with her at Seven Diamond Multicraft. They acquire the raw materials in bulk from places like Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri & Pipili and they an inventory for 3-4 months.

Their efforts in this is field has started to pay off because of the high quality of work. She shared that recently , they got an order for applique work for a temple for INR 28,000. However, the temple administration was so impressed that they paid additional INR 2,000.

She is a self-made artisan, who had this hobby since her school days and later converted this to a business. She believes that  "handmade products have much greater authenticity and beauty than the machine-made ones". At the same time, she expresses grief, that people nowadays are unaware of the high-quality produced by artisans and prefer the machine-made cheaper products. She is happy that our honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiji has started the "vocal for local" campaign, and this she believes makes the case for artisans stronger. 

The current Covid-19 situation has posed a problem for her as the sales are down, however they are assured that they have got enough stocks of their artwork, which would start selling once things return to normalcy. 

That’s called optimism and our salute to many more Kiranbala's in India who are promoting local products and creating livelihoods for artisans.

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year student during her internship with EnigmaticIndia. Photos have been provided by Ms Kiranbala)

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Artisans Around Us: Sunita Mohanty

"If you dream it,you can do it": Sunita Mohanty

For each person out there who desires to realize their goals, their dreams however have faced tons of Obstacles, Doubters, have created mistakes and so finally given up…Well here’s the story of 1 Odisha woman who made it all on her own by breaking out of all the prevailing stereotypes. Mrs. Sunita Mohanty, associate businessperson and also the owner of Neena Crafts, five years past was a bit like the other Painter trying to find a chance to touch the lives of others through her work however rather than waiting, she set to form for herself a platform wherever she may level up in achieving her dreams and thus Neena Crafts was fashioned.

Neena Crafts is presently concerned with creating and commerce of Paintings together with the illustrious Pattachitra art form that is understood for its involved details and mythological narratives inscribed in it. Not solely Pattachitra however Neena Crafts additionally features a form of Wall paintings, hand paintings and even saree paintings that are splendidly referred to as Kalamkari. However what interests me a lot of is that the Pattachitra art form, for it's galvanized by the Hindu Mythology and to create only 1 Pattachitra it takes months or maybe a year of labour and patience to place in such a big amount of range of natural colours and portray a story out of it. The saree paintings and even the wall paintings created by Neena Crafts might be of our own alternative, it’s like we tend to may wear art in our sarees and walk and even adorn and style our dream house with all the fashionable nonetheless ancient wall paintings.

As we all know that there's a lot of demand of the hand sewn merchandise within the market and particularly paintings like Pattachitra and Wall paintings would need masterful artists of that, Neena crafts has recruited well-trained and economical operating individuals which permits it to finish the received orders from customers over the year and even reach resolute more audience by putting up their work in several Craft Exhibitions. Until currently they have their store in Odisha wherever the demand of Pattachitra paintings is extremely high however they're yet to create their on-line presence within the market.

It's true that Mrs. Sunita Mohanty broke out of the notion set that says that ladies shouldn’t work after wedding for she took a step and created Neena Crafts which is with success running nowadays, for at that point she gave her Painter Self an opportunity to Evolve!

(Interviewed by Neha Dash, KSOM 2nd year Student during her internship)

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"People Around Us" - Bikram Swain

Bikram Swain

Bikram 2 Bollywood

Car Washer to Tiger Shroff’s personal trainer

“My father doesn’t understand yet what I am doing here in Bollywood. Once or twice I have shown my selfies with Bollywood stars. But he said, "you don’t have a click with Sachin Tendulkar"? Two months back,  I got chance to take a click with great cricketer Sachin Tendulkar in Mehboob Studio, Mumbai. I sent that photograph to my father & he was so happy that I can’t even tell you. Now only he accepts…yes my son is doing something in Mumbai”: Bikram Swain.

Bikram & Sachin

Bikram’s life is not less than a Bollywood story. Being from a very poor family one day he shifted from Odisha to Surat to get some work as his maternal aunt was already there. He learnt embroidery work with a hope to earn more money. There he was earning Rs. 1300 per month. He used to keep half of that for himself and send the other half to his family. One day, someone suggested him that he should go to Mumbai. He came to the city with no money and started hunting for a job. This was in 2009. He worked with a shop for spakes frames colouring in South Mumbai and on Sundays & other holidays worked as a cleaner, used to wash cars to earn a living. While working as a car cleaner he became friend with a driver. He used to travel to Juhu every Sunday since it used to be his weekly off. When he went to Juhu beach, he saw some kids there doing gymnastics. He saw them and began practising with them. This became a routine for Bikram  on Sundays & on festival days. He got very good at it and was a fast learner.

Bikram & Tiger Shroff

“On one such day, "Tiger Shroff" spotted me. He was preparing for his debut film then. Even I didn’t have idea that he is the son of great bollywood star Jackie Shroff. When he saw me, he came and practised with me. After few such sessions, he offered me a job as his trainer. Back then, I didn’t know the language and I could hardly communicate with him. But Tiger understood me. He asked me to shift from South Mumbai to Andheri. He also bought me a phone and a sim card. Through that, we used to communicate. Since I didn’t know the language, he only used to message me the time at which we had to meet. Slowly, I learnt the language and now I can converse. Then, Tiger taught me how to browse videos on youtube, through which I learnt many new things.” Bikram.

Bikram is the first boy from his village Antarigam (Gunjam- Odisha) to have travelled abroad. His family & friends are so proud of him now. He has purchased some land in his village & built a home also. He helped his younger brother to be an MBA. His  village is affected by Naxalites and it is very under developed. In fact, Antarigam got electricity few years back only. Now Bikram is helping his village to be a developed one.   

“I also had a flair for dance and because of my flexibility, I got a good hang of it. I worked on that skill too and soon became very good at it. When I met Sooraj Pancholi via Tiger, he suggested that I should train him to dance. This began the next phase of my career. I now train Sooraj, Sayesha Sehgal (Dilip Kumar's niece) and Athiya Shetty. However, for me, Tiger is God. I travel the world with Tiger. I work with Tiger on all his dance numbers. But when Tiger is shooting, I am free. Hence, Tiger suggested that I get my Assistant Choreographer's card done so that I can assist Ahmed sir. I did it and went on to work with him on "Kick", "Phantom", "Hero", "All is Well among other movies.” Bikram 

(In conversation with "Saumya Parida")

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Trip to Udayagiri-Khandagiri Caves, Odisha

The Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves are just 5-6 Kms from the capital city of Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.

Located on two adjacent hills or hillocks, these are caves made for Jain monks during the reign of King Kharavela(193 BCE – after 170 BCE).

There are 18 caves in Udayagiri and 15 caves in Khandagiri. The climb to the caves is quite steep and is not friendly for senior citizens. The inscriptions are in Brahmi, Oriya, Devanagiri and in some places in Sanskrit. Some of the important caves are the Ganesh Gumpha, Sarpha Gumpha and Hathigumpha.

Beware of monkeys and vendors/shopkeepers will sell you peanuts which can be offered to the apes.

Do take time out to visit this historical place.

 

(This was published in our website http://www.enigmaticindia.info/destination/culture-heritage)

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Trip to Bhitarkanika National Park, Odisha

Lurking Danger - signpost

A trip to Bhitarkanika National Park was long pending and we decided to visit it in October 2010.

Situated in Orissa, India this place is a hotspot of diversity – home to the second largest area of mangrove forest only next to the Sunderbans, the estuarine or Salt water crocodile and the OR(Olive Ridley Turtles). This place can be accessed from Gupti by boat(provided by the Forest department). You can find the details in many websites – however the most authentic we felt is…http://www.bhitarkanika.org. You can also try finding more details from a private operator at http://www.bhitarkanikanationalpark.com/

The best time to visit is between Nov and March, however we decided to go ahead with our trip, knowing that the weather could play truant(with an impeding cyclone). Our journey began from Gupti by boat(there is a fair weather road also to Dangamal from Rajnagar, which was closed due to heavy rains) and the journey through the Patsala and Bhitarkanika river was exciting.

We started see mud-flats which seem to be the lifeline in such an ecosystem. The crocodiles, the birds, the mangrove seed and everything around seem to survive. The ecosystem is quite cyclic in nature with high and low tides, each occurring alternately in every 6 hrs i.e. with two high tides and two low tides in a 24 hr cycle. The whole flora and fauna had adjusted to this web of life.

Soon the boat driver shouted “Sir there is a 20 ft crocodile to your left”…and what a sight it was to see this majestic creature…with its mouth open, basking in the sun. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon and the tide was receding…and our boat was struggling to go against the current. Slowly, we could see a lot of crocodiles on both sides…as per the last census in 2009, there were 1610 crocodiles recorded. However as per the data available at the breeding centre more than 2300 crocodiles has been bred and released into this water system. There is a mortality rate and obviously many would have moved to surrounding water systems.

Forest Rest house

There is good accommodation provided by the Forest Department with an interpretation center, few captive crocodiles, a python etc. Do not expect much from a facilities point of view – there are of acceptable standard and not luxurious. In the evening, spotted deer and wild boars come close to the Forest rest house. We did spot the jungle and spotted owlet. To our fortune we got introduced to Chandan Jani a wildlife researcher and consultant. He informed us that there were 18 species of spiders including Tarantula. He was researching and training guide during those days.

surprised look of Chital on the trail track

The next day morning he guided us through a small trek and explained the ecosystem of mangroves – 70 species, nematophores, buttress root system, and whole lot of things. The 2 hrs trek was enough to drain us and we were not prepared with our footwear. His suggestion for a 7 kms trek in the other side of the park was not accepted by us and it seems one could encounter a lot more flora and fauna during this…DONOT MISS THIS PART.

With the cyclone sending strong signals we decided to cut short our trip by a day and head back to safer ground. The journey back was much faster as we moved with the current and spotted a lot of crocodiles again.

It was worth a good trip and we would love to go back during the winter season.

(Contributed by EnigmaticIndia team)

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