Around 170 kms from Howrah, along the Howrah-Katwa line, is a village called Agradwip. A 10 minutes diesel auto ride from the station takes you to a very tiny village called Natungram. The painted wooden dolls we had as children, the Gour-Nitai, the kathputli bride, the raja-rani-bought at fairs and which endured our childish mishandling till their colours disappeared- these dolls are made by the 50 odd families of this village. We got down at Gour Sutradhar's house. The families here mostly bear the surname sutradhar-the story tellers. For, these dolls were used as props to tell stories once upon a time. Folk stories of Radha-Krishna, of Gouranga, of kings and queens, of Ma Lokkhi and her eponymous mount- the Owl. The owl features most prominently in the wooden sculptures here. Colourful figures, in white and red and black and yellow-with large round eyes and a hooked beak- the owl comes in all sizes, from as tiny as 2 inches to huge ones. So sought after is this owl motif, that it has made its way into a myriad different forms, from adorning the stands of little stools to acting as borders for bedroom mirrors to being placed as screens for bedside table doors. The owl, literally, is all over the place. For there are no boundaries where the craft is made. Right from the narrow village road that leads to the government workshop, to the open kitchen and verandah, to the inside of the little damp rooms- the craft is scattered all over. It forms their lives. There's no separate work life and life after work. It is all intertwined. "See how hard we work all day," says Gour Sutradhar's wife to us, busy applying a mixture of Khari-mati, flour and water on the wooden owls to smoothen their surface. To see the process from the start, we go to the workshop which also houses a four room guesthouse on the upper floor. Felled trees are brought here to be cut and chopped in machines into strips and blocks. The wood of the pinkish red p(n)eo, gamhar, neem, shimul, shegun are used prominently in the sculptures. P(n)eo is especially good as it will never crack. The blocks are then given a crude primary shape by a small handheld instrument. These are done by the men. The women then take over. First the smoothing mixture is applied and the crude dolls are left in a basket to dry. Then a white primer is applied and the figures are spread out to dry. Once dry, women or young boys take up the task of painting them with acrylic colours or oil paints. Vibrant as the figures may be, I was a tad bit disappointed to see that the painting lacked finesse. Maybe if the market is more evolved and demand for better quality goods spring up, they will consider spending more time on each figure, making the effort to paint them with care. But my slight disappointment vanished on seeing the carved neem wooden idols. From a single block of wood, like all the other figures, these are chiselled to make the forms of Ma Durga, Ganesh and the like. Using simply chisels of two different sizes, the idols are carved to perfection. Gour sutradhar added the finishing touches to the one we bought right before us. After the chiselling is over, these are sand papered and rubbed with powdered "gala" in water. You can opt for lacquer, but we decided to stick to the basic. Having seen the whole process of wooden doll making, we called the auto driver who had dropped us to this place, for there are no vehicles to take from the village. It is thus imperative that you take down the number of the driver and arrange with him to meet you later on to take you back to the station. We had come by the 8:00 am Howra-Katwa local and we would leave by the 3 pm one. You can also opt to stay overnight at the guest house, which charges Rs. 650 per person per day, meals included. All you need to do is call up someone at the village, and they will arrange for the rest. There is a Kathia baba's ashram nearby which you can visit or even go to Purbasthali Pakhiralay, just a few stations away. The artisans here also regularly take orders for interior decorations of homes and pandal making during the pujas. I am adding some of their numbers below:
Gour Sutradhar : 8145283862
Uttam Bhaskar : 9732908249
Dilip Sutradhar : 9333386501
1) The wood
3) Spliced wood
11) The polishing mixture is applied on these chiseled dolls instead of colour.
12) There are other figures and wooden structures like the ones shown below
