Journey to Craft World aka The Craft Village at Vellar

It has been flu fortnight here at Karthi, with DH succumbing first, then Ani, then Kunju and finally the nursemaid who was running around with thermometer, oxymeter, meds, hot water, and tissues. DH was tested for Covid twice and the results were negative, even though we have all the symptoms. Karthi is currently like an echo-cave. The cough starting in one room will set off an echo in several other rooms and go on awhile. But enough of that, let us look at something bright and cheery.

Forever on the lookout out for new attractions in this area, I heard a lot about a craft village on the way to Kovalam. A few years ago we did look in, but the place was still under construction and there wasn't much to see. We thought, "Oh, just another 'government undertaking' to waste public resources." I mean, have you been to any of those state craft emporiums that are horribly designed, where items are displayed haphazardly, and where the staff is so demoralized that they barely open their mouth to talk? And the same products: wooden elephants, plaster Kathakali faces, snake boat replicas, and the metal cornered ornament boxes lined with flimsy red velvet ad nauseam. 

Last year, I saw an article about the Craft Village in the newspaper and got good reviews from my sister who went there once. So we went there on Christmas morning in 2021...

Well, well... this looked nothing like the place I remembered! We got there slightly before the opening time – 10 am – and got parking inside the campus. Waiting for the artisans to arrive and open their stalls, we took a little walk and found this wonderful square to relax in...

 

It was only later that I came to know that the stalls are built around this pretty place. Let me show you just a sample of the things we saw. Starting from Nettippattams of different sizes...

Then chendas and maddalams of different sizes starting from miniature ones that are made with the same materials as those of the original.

Isn't this Kathakali painting beautiful? It's life-size too. Now what if I tell you that it is all made of quilled paper???

You don't believe me? Let us take a closer look...

Just take a look at that detail!!! It took the "quiller" duo of husband and wife around a month to finish this masterpiece!

 

These stalls are also the workshops of these artists and crafters. According to the space required, there might or might not be separate spaces available for the workshop. For example, the ceramic artist who made these...

has a huge workshop behind the showroom, complete with a potter's wheel. They even hold classes there! Of course, there were the traditional crafts if you have a hankering for elephants and snake boats. Cane furniture and handloom textiles are available as well. But then there are also these...

 

and these...

These are beautiful miniature replicas of the uru made in Beypore, the ancient ship-building art, brought to life by one of the traditional artisans. 

Going into the workshop of a wood craft stall, we were awed by a sculpture in progress that was eight feet tall...

This is a depiction of the Viswaroopa commissioned by a well-known actor and with the addition of a final piece above it, will attain a total height of 11–12 feet. I wandered around the piece and caught sight of Sree Krishna blowing the Panchajanya...

 

There are scenes from the Mahabharata worked all over the piece. Just look at this Dasavathara  necklace! Start from the left top and you can see all ten!

I prised myself away from the wonderful piece of art and craft because there was a lot more to see. Here is a stall of metal craft...

 

An example of papier mache combined with bamboo...

Macrame hammocks and swings...

I could go on, but then this post would be too long, and I still have to show you the Emporium.

which housed a two-storey tromp l'oeil painting...

Look at how the railing of the top floor balcony is blended into and continued in the painting. We had to have some fun with it, so here is Kunju stepping into the market...

 

And here is DH waiting patiently for the cobbler to finish his current job...

The Emporium was a veritable Aladdin's cave filled with treasure...

The floor above the emporium houses a painting gallery, of which I will not post photos, but leave you to discover for yourself.

The Art and Craft Village is still expanding with more facilities and attractions to be added soon. The layout of the buildings reminded me of Technopark and the facilities provided are Technopark-standard too—which is excellent for a any institution. There is plenty of space for kids to run around and exhaust themselves while the adults browse through the stalls. It is also elderly-friendly as the stalls are accessible on one floor and there are plenty of places to rest if need be. There is a restaurant on the premises and we would have tried it if we hadn't made lunch plans for the day. All in all, the Village is worth spending at least half a day. 

The life of the place are the crafters whose passion fills the spaces that they work in. If you go there, make sure to talk to them about their work, it is simply heartwarming. I have shown a mere fraction of the items available. There are products for pockets of all sizes.

The cost of admission is Rs.100 for adults and half that for kids. Separate fee for parking.

If only that Village was within commutable distance, I would have taken a teeny, tiny stall for crochet and spent the whole day crocheting and nattering with the other crafters!!!

New dawn... new day... And the return of a prodigal!!!

My life in the new year has been like the comic video of Jagathy Sreekumar that was doing the rounds during the first five days of 2022...

I have a planner, I have a habit checklist printed out on an excel sheet, I have reminders on my phone, but when it is time produce something creative, such as a post on this blog, I fall back down, slouch, and then mutter, "I'll do it tomorrow."

Which is not to say that I have been completely idle: being a homemaker and a busy freelance copy editor precludes that.

So let me tell you that one of our new year gifts was not quite apparent at all. As you know, the itinerant cat population at Karthi fluctuates almost everyday (Please check my posts with the label 'Cats' to learn about the ongoing saga). As the local cats know, there is always a bowl full of food left out on our porch, not in plain sight, mind you, but behind a jaali, where a cat in the know can access it if they are courageous enough to climb our front steps. Many a time we have surprised strange cats who, according to the level of phlegm in their nature, have either sped away or casually strolled away after flicking a disdainful tail at our inquiries. Our current, somewhat regular cats, are Pirate and her children from several births, Tukey, Topi, and their elder brother Ellesmere (my original name for this cat was actually Ella, until I discovered, ahem, that he wasn't a she, so I borrowed a name from the Outlander series!)

In the second week of January, we noted a new, disreputable-looking tom cat that came in Tukey's company. Tukey is a half-grown tom cat and we wondered how he could have established a relationship with a strange tom cat. One thing we noticed was that this new cat was not at all afraid of us. He shared Tukey's food and lay placidly on our door mat. We tried shooing him away as we felt he would challenge Ellesmere (who is a fluffy, cuddly, darling who barely tolerates our going silly over him). But the new yellow and white cat didn't scare easily. Two days later, Ani called me to the porch, 

"Amma, I think this is Akrami!" 

I reached the porch to see the strange cat ensconced in his lap, making no effort to get down. 

"Ani!!! You should know better than to cuddle strange cats like that!!!" 

"But that's what I meant, Amma! I think it is Akrami. He didn't object at all when I put him on my lap. Would a strange cat let me do that? And look at his front feet, see, those marks look like the injuries he had when the dog attacked him!"

I took a closer look at the cat. He was marked all over with scars of battle and had patches of skin showing through his fur at different places. Especially notable was a slanting slash over one eye that acted as a single eyebrow giving him a sardonic expression. 

"I don't think it is Akrami. He has the same coloring, but it can't be him!"

The child who was the closest among us to Akrami wasn't so easily convinced. This is a picture of them taken back in 2016 or so...

He took pictures of the cat on my phone and brought them to me. 

"Amma, let us check Akrami's old pictures."

I delved into the Pictures folder on my computer and found old photos and videos, and there it was! The markings were uncannily the same!! The yellow on the new cat was a bit darker and he had clicked pictures of the new cat from only one side. So I asked him to click more to make a thorough check...

 

As you can see, he was pretty thorough this time, clicked from almost all angles! So we presented our findings in the family council. The council decided that he would have to undergo a battery of tests to see if it was indeed the old Akrami. Till he passed those tests, DH gave him a provisional name: Akrala. The 'la' stood for 'look-alike'. 

First we administered the Pirate test. We observed closely when Pirate came. She slapped him within the first five minutes! Akrala thus passed test number one. 

We got hot ulli vada from our favorite tea shop. We gave him pieces from a lukewarm one at first. He was not very interested. DH put it in the microwave for 30 seconds and tried again. This time, the cat eagerly fell on the vada and finished off all the pieces! Test number two was passed with flying colors!

He started lording it on our doormat, curling up on it comfortably. That was his favorite pose in his heydays and when Raj came up the front steps, he didn't even open his eyes... Akrala passed yet another test!

He started demanding food from us first thing in the morning, and no cat has been as importunate as that from us except Akrami. Voila, yet another test passed.

Yesterday, I was making dosas when I took a fresh one to the porch and dropped a piece in front of him. He ate it up, looked up at me and mewed. Just like he used to do while asking me for food! I dropped more pieces while DH took care of making the next few dosas. In my heart, I changed Akrala to Akrami in that instant!

Today, while we had our breakfast after giving him his, Akrami was lying on the doormat, pretending that he was lord of all he surveyed. On a whim, I called out, "Akramiiii". He turned his head majestically towards us. I repeated it when he turned away, and he again looked back at us. 

Yet another confirmation came this evening. We had saved chicken scraps from lunch for him. Ani gave them to him and we heard him going, "Nomm nomm nomm"!!!!! The very enjoying sounds he used to make when we gave him his favorite food!!!

No doubt there will be more tests and more confirmations. He has changed a lot. He isn't as chatty as he used to be. He is tougher. Then he used to cringe and go away when he was beaten by Pirate, but now, he growls back at her, and she seems to be in awe of her sire, not impudent as of old. He drove off Ellesmere when he came to visit us two days ago, but we are not complaining. DH scolded Pirate when she batted him on the head today because she didn't want to share breakfast with him!!! Just like old times! 

To think that if Ani had not been observant like he is... we would have missed our New Year gift!!!

Today, I heard DH making up the story of where Akrami has been for the past two years. It started with "Having eaten two pieces of chicken on Christmas day in 2019 and chatting with my family, I decided to sleep it off on the undercarriage of a lorry." To summarize, the next time Akrami opened his eyes, he was in the border town of Punalur and it took him two years and occasional glimpses and near misses till he made his way back to our home! I must tell DH to write it down some time. Might be a bestseller!