In what will certainly be, in the end, one of the highlights of the trip, Subha and Nilayan took us to Kumartuli, a 400-year old artisan village, a pottery center (Natalie heaven!) in northern Kolkata. There, craftsmen spend 2-3 months preparing for the annual 4-day September festival, Durga Puja, honoring the goddess Durga. It is the biggest festival in this festival-happy city. Each village, each community, has their own image of Durga that they shop for here in Kumartuli, then use during the festival. After the festival, they dip her in the sacred river, and the clay (according to my students) can be re-used. The paints and dyes used to be among the pollutants of the river, but there is an effort underway to use organic materials.

Durga, wife of Shiva, is a fearsome goddess—she is invincible, with eight arms, carrying various weapons, and riding a lion or a buffalo. The artisans begin with straw forms, cover them with clay (from the Ganges), and mold them into forms representing Durga, and her children—Ganesh (with the elephant head, the remover of obstacles), Kartikeya, Lakshmi and Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge, music and the arts).

The artisans begin with straw forms, cover them with clay and mold them (the stage they were in when we went through the village), then in later stages plaster, paint and decorate the idols. They get shipped all around the world.

Here’s what we saw:

It was very difficult to get a shot in which his hands were not a complete blur.

(ta-da!)

And on the way out of town, a stop at a tea stand:

Nilayan

a beautiful evening!