COMMUNITY NEWS

Location :- Ahmadabad Time :- 1030 Hrs.

We all reached the destination together clouded with the idea of finding the communities we are looking for if any but not sure of what exactly we are looking for. Just getting down the auto rickshaw what I saw was huge POP models in a row seeming to me like as if I suddenly white waves of ganesha from each and every nook and corner and interestingly breaking the monotony was these very colorful stones like a pallet of an artisan trying to break the existing aura like looking to a rainbow (Kuntal’s idea of rainbow still fascinating me!!!) in a beautiful snow capped mountains only that the mountains are ganesh shaped any way these glitters took my eyes and interest.

This is a community comprising of migrants from Rajsthan, who have started selling stones and took up the art of making stone installations at residential, commercial and public places. They source their merchandise from various places of Western and North western regions of the country like Jaisalmer in Rajasthan , Chandigarh , Dehradun in UP etc. They have to personally travel and select their choice of stones. These stones are purchased as well as sold by price/unit of mass, price based on the size, quality and uniqueness of stone.

Since, stone selling is not sufficient enough to support livelihood, the main source of income for these workers are the installation orders for fountains, table tops, structures for trees etc. The entire family is involved in the business with usually ladies looking after the retail stall and men visiting sites . The source of orders is the popularity of place along with, word of mouth and contractors/architects with whom they have already worked in the past. They maintain a catalog of their work by means of an album of photographs of their art. The community depends on each other for additional labour support from if required for making the installations and to procure additional stones in case the key seller falls short of the same.

There is no certainty in their profession and they have to often resort to daily wages labor or seek to alternative services like gardening for residential colonies. Though there exist families who have ceased to make idols and taken up this profession owing to the seasonal nature of the former.

But as the saying goes "The grass is always greener at the other side" they had a new set of problems thus I am on my way to find a greener pasture for them in the same side....