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Ten years ago, when I began working with handmade paper, I went to Kalpi for the first time. In the heart of UP's hinterland, Kalpi has historically been one of the main hubs of handpaper making in India . For a primarily urban person, visiting Kalpi was full of surprising experiences, some good, some bad, but all interesting. |
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The Cockroach
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| On my first trip to Kalpi, I found myself waiting in a deserted bus station in Kanpur , the nearest big town, for a couple of hours, with no bus in sight. I came upon an odd looking vehicle, colloquially known as ‘The Cockroach'. The driver said he'd take me for free halfway to Kalpi but only if I was willing to sit on the top of the vehicle. So I did that, traveling atop a cockroach for the first, and hopefully the last time. Thankfully, on subsequent trips, I've managed to find ‘normal' transportation, which has nothing to do with the genus insecta, to reach Kalpi. |
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No address required |
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| Another surprise, pleasanter than the first, awaited me when I reached Kalpi. Everyone there knew everyone else, and there was no need of addresses -- all I had to ask for was where Udai lived…and I reached! After the overwhelming journey, I expected the worst, but ended up being pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by some of the warmest people I have ever had the opportunity to meet -- and eat some of the best home cooked food I've ever tasted. |
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The Queen's Treasury |
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| Not knowing where I was going to be put up for the night, I was delighted to see an ancient but beautifully located guest house on the banks of the river Ganges . On asking for details, I was told that this was the treasury for the Rani of Jhansi, the Queen warrior of the 1850s, now converted into a government run guesthouse. In the same breath I was informed that the walls were 4feet thick, with very few windows…sounded like a place for the ghosts to haunt. Needless to say, I stayed over at Udai's for the night. |
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An ‘almost' meeting |
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| On a trip a few years back, Udai asked me if I was up to some company, he had some people I might be interested in meeting. Turned out that he wanted to meet up with a few family members of the Bandit Queen, Phoolan Devi…Her village was just a few minutes away from Kalpi, but it seemed (and still does) as if none of the other women in Kalpi were as emancipated as the Bandit Queen – who took justice in her own hands by gunning down the men who abused her. |
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Driven by gender |
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| Unlike the Bandit Queen, women in Kalpi, traditionally, seldom go out of their homes. In fact, the womenfolk in Udai's family were so enthralled when they heard that I, being a woman, drove a car, they begged me to drive up to Kalpi the next time I came…. |
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Rituals of papermaking |
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| Over the years, Udai and I have developed a great rapport and a working relationship – but it has taken me painfully long to come to grips with his work style. Business is not always top priority with him – kinship and religion are equally important. For example, we cannot place orders, however urgent they are, on Tuesdays. Udai's point of view is that this day of the week is reserved for religious activity, and even the prospect of good business cannot lure him away from prayer and ritual… |
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Faxing made an event |
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| One thing visiting Kalpi has done, is to make me stop taking all the facilities we have in Delhi , for granted. Kalpi's telecom service was so bad, that within a year of introducing cell phone services there, about 1000 people signed up. A few months back, tired of orders being bungled because of the lack of communication (there are no courier services here, and regular post takes a week), I sent Udai a fax machine. But among those 1000 cell phone users, there were only three other fax machines. So, now, whenever a fax arrives, it's a bit of an event. |
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Over the years, through my visits to various other places where handpaper is made, going to Kalpi has always felt like a bit of a homecoming. With all its problems, infrastructural and otherwise, the people there still take pride in adhering to age-old methods of this craft -- giving us paper, which as one buyer commented on ‘is good enough to eat'. |
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