Late in the evening past 8, we drive across the narrow Khandepar bridge in the darkness of the night and ask for multiple directions until we cross the industrial estate at Usgao and go past a small village called Ambicanagar.
Far into multiple by lanes and winding roads, we get to Chaudi Kumpharwadda, Sankhli well known for the Kumphar community or potters community in Goa. While under a high mast lamp post Ramakant Sheth waits for us with his children to escort us to his home.
Sheth explains, “Our community is dwindling and the potter’s here have dumped their tradition of pottery and become mining truck drivers and even bought trucks. Just me and my brother-in-law Dattaram Mulekar stayed faithful to the trade our parents gave us over generations.”
Shet is the only potter in the area who makes the traditional percussion instrument of Goa, the ghumat while the next nearest place of ghumat makers is in faraway Sattari.
Shet’s father over generations was a potter and he taught the trade to his son while Ramakant’s elder sister Vijaya learnt the art of mixing the clay for the pottery.
“Without Vijaya, my skill is a complete failure. There’s a particular spot in Paroda from where we bring the clay after digging the earth for just about one meter deep. The clay needs to be mixed just right and strained out of all stones and it needs to have the right plasticity for flexibility on the wheel and the right aluminum content to bind together when baked. Vijaya and her hands only understand all this,” explains Sheth who has moved from the traditional pedaling wheel and now uses a motor.
Just besides his home, Shet still maintains a small shed with from where he carries out his pottery and stacks the many pots that he crafts which he needs to stack till he has done of them to fill the kiln.
“The batti or the fire kiln needs to be completely full to bake and it’s not feasible to have only a few clay items to bake since the cost of firewood is high. We make various pots and pans and I coordinate with my brother as to ensure we’re firing a filled kiln after which we send our supplies for sale,” explains Shet.
Shet who himself went to join the lucrative mining industry in his village, thanks his father for having failed to become a truck driver, since now mining is banned and all the village lads are suffering massive losses. But he explains the Kumphar’s who abandoned their trade and skill are now unable to regain their lost tradition and sadly have abandoned pottery completely making the trade almost extinct.
“Dad didn’t let me become a truck driver and he gave me an education. Over the years I did a pottery course in Master Pottery and did further certifications in pottery because of which I have a government job with the Goa Handicrafts Corporation at Aparanta and I’m able to work and discuss pottery daily but I get home only at 8pm and have only the weekends to craft some pots and ghumats,” explain Shet at 10pm at his home with his sister Vijaya besides him, making a clay mix as he is keen we watch a demonstration of his ghumat-making skill.
Shet explains how the Gharr or Monitor Lizard killing is completely banned by the government as it’s an endangered species which has hit the making of ghumats, the percussion instrument that completely depends on the skin of the Gharr.
“We use goat skin nowadays but the sound is not the same. We need the ghumat for the Zagor, Shigmo, Ganesh Chaturthi to say our aarti’s and prayers but it’s rare to get a ghumat today. Also the cost of getting goat’s leather and making a ghumat has got very expensive and the cost goes up beyond Rs 2,500,” Shet says.
Shet has many orders today but can’t deliver them because of the time constraint and inability of acquire the materials. He is fighting to keep alive the sound of the ghumat in Goa but how long will his hands work is the question as the newer generation has embraced capitalism and forgotten tradition.
