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