Colours, Puppets and the Experience

Ambivalent, is the best I can describe myself when I found out I’ll be going for my first field visit to Kathputli colony in Shadipur. I was very excited about it but on a deeper level, I was also a bit uncertain. I didn’t know what to expect.  Other juniors who had already been there gave me a word of caution: whatever happens, do NOT wear slippers. Wear shoes only.

When we reached there, it all appeared very ordinary to me; just like a million other such colonies that pervade every nook and corner of our country. We met the puppeteers on the outskirts of the slum to discuss their artist profiles. Interacting with them for the first time, I realized how warm and welcoming they were. They offered to show us around the colony, and we gladly accepted.

Agile and deft, Raju bhaiya led us. Artistically maneuvering through the twists and turns, over the flowing drains and swerving around the running kids, I lost my sense of direction pretty quickly. After that, for all of us, it was like being led through a maze. Squinting through the yellow sun, I saw around me for the first time - and it was arresting. Walls, homes, rooms, even the bare air was tinted with all hues. Washed anew, the sight of the sun against the bright clothes was striking. As its rays percolated down the trees, against the open drains where we walked, everything shone. I could see the superman t-shirts, chota bheem tops, dabangg glasses looking at us and smiling. And we smiled back.

Noises floated in from every direction. No matter how small a room was, it had a TV or a radio on at its full volume. The subtle sounds of the bangles, anklets, gushing water combined with the more pervading ones became an aural treat. It all fit in, like puzzle pieces coming together.

We saw the puppeteers making masks, working magic with their strings. The passion they shared was uncanny, almost infectious. That experience in itself was inspiring. Life and talent bloomed together in the most unassuming corners; and they prospered. If not, they knew they tried. As I walked back and had a last look around the place, I saw those smiles, that innate talent and the hunger to hone it.

And I was awe-stuck.

-Bhumika Gupta

Demystifying Katputli Colony

I had grown up on fables and fairy tales but never had I witnessed the magic that these fables spoke about. The magic that connects people, overcoming barriers of cast and class; magic that transcends obstacles that stand in the way of opportunities; magic that breaks the shackles of poverty and rises above all odds so that all that is witnessed are smiles. Smiles on the faces of the little children who watch spellbound as the anarkali dances to the tunes of her “Sutradhar”.

I witnessed this magic in the Kathputli Colony, Shadipur. I entered the narrow lanes for the first time, a little apprehensive; excited but anxious. I had heard so much about the alleys of Kathputli Colony. But all that I had heard or read can never equal the experience of being in that place. The puppeteers welcomed us so warmly. They smiled at us, offered tea; I was already won over by the hospitality. The vibrance of the Kathputli Colony was infectious. Every house here had an artist: a puppeteer, a fire-breather, a sword swallower.

These artists possessed talent that is unparalleled. Some of them have represented our country abroad. They have travelled around the world showcasing their art. They have received national awards and yet they return to the Kathputli Colony. They have potential that deserves a lot more recognition, yet they live on the margins, barely surviving on loans in their lean season. But they live together. Thousands of families: Hindus, Muslims; Rajasthanis, Marathis: they all live together. But alas! Even that privilege will soon be snatched. Their Colony will be demolished. Their land has been sold. And the place where they have spent all their lives, where they learnt all their lessons, where they laughed, where they cried, they made friends, they witnessed the best moments of their lives: that place will be snatched!

And our artists, the preservers of our culture will be “rehabilitated” to an area which is currently a dump yard.

Maybe magic does exist only in fairy tales. The most magical place I have ever witnessed will no longer be a reality. Every day the fear of eviction daunts the artists. They haven’t been promised anything in writing till now and they face the nightmare of being homeless, they face the fear of being separated.

I now visit the Kathputli Colony and the lanes are silent. The sounds of the dhols and drums, the music is replaced by an unfamiliar, a peculiar silence. 

Ironical how the residents of this colony have travelled the world and earned respect but they still won’t have a home to come back to, a place to live in. I wonder: Didn't they deserve a house in their own city?

- Swarnima Gupta

Emily, a photographer who works for National Geographic, travels around the world capturing performing artists and their vibrant art forms. She recently visited Katputli Colony, New Delhi, to learn more about Indian art forms. It was a memorable experience for her as well as our puppeteers under Project Kayakalp. 

Here is what she had to say about her week long journey.

Kathputli Colony feels as if it is the last place in India where magic is a birthright.

There is a common likeness to performing communities the world over. I witnessed, as I worked around the globe as a photographer, creating accounts of circuses, carnivals or bullfighting troupes, how performance enables the performers within these communities to transcend the poverty of their origins. Nowhere is this more of a reality than in Kathputli Colony.

Despite the fact that traditional performance is one of India’s greatest cultural exports, that Kathputli’s puppeteers are jetted around the world, winning applause from audiences in distant hemispheres, their ability to rely on a steady income from performance in India is undermined by the fast pace of modernity, and the popularity of television and computer games.

The skills learnt by these puppeteers have been passed down the generations like treasured heirlooms: how to carve characters out of a hunk of wood; how to make their puppet dance and jump and come alive; how to tell stories that children will remember in their dreams. There is however, a real danger that this generation of puppeteers could be the last.

So I count myself lucky to have had the chance of working with the formidable team of students, and puppeteers responsible for combating this danger. The success of Project Kayakalp lies in innovation: providing new income streams, creating new narratives, making puppetry appeal to wider audiences, from NGOs to schools. The experience of seeing the work in action, the energy on the ground was inspirational: the pride that the puppeteers have in their work, their ambitions for the future, and most of all, seeing the children of Kathputli scamper over the rooftops and down the alleyways every time the beat of a drum announced an impromptu show.

The significance of Project Kayakalp is immense: it provides a prototype for how change can be enacted with success in similar performing communities around the world. 

- Emily Ainsworth