Fancy Walking Sticks

Pushkar Fair - Fancy Walking Sticks

Pushkar Fair an annual happening just after Deepawali where pilgrims come to visit the Brahma Temple and take a holy dip in the pond. This is not limited to the holy mission of pilgrims to seek blessings of the deity of Brahma ji.

The best that digital photography with affordable cameras has given is that it has expanded photography to all genders and age  groups giving us to enjoy beautiful visuals in abundance

It attracts animal trading basically camels and horses. The large open sandy ground becomes a camp for these traders of animals. They live in the camp in the most simple way using their camel carts and even the under side of the cart is used to sleep. It gets very cold during sun down since it is a desert.

One of the best fully geared photographer at the Pushkar Fair 2012

It has attracted photographers since many years. The use od digital cameras have increased the foot fall of die hard passionate photographers and the casual hobby shooters of all ages. Today one can see a wide assortment of the finest cameras and lenses. The clothing is also utmost bizarre that help keep one from sunburn and dust. The many over loaded photographers made me do a side story on Photographing the Photographers that is available as a story. On going through the listed stories I have found 2 stories with the same title. One I shot at the Taj Mahal in Agra and the second the most recent one at Pushkar.

Earthen pots buried in the sand and the area is watered to keep the sand soaked to help chill the cold drinks and mineral water bottle to beat the heat of the mid day desert sun.

There were a few things happening on the side of the Pushkar Fair. Innovative method of serving cool soft drinks and mineral water bottles. Kulfi / Ice cream before the advent of refrigerators was also frozen in a similar fashion. 

The wonderful roof of Hotel Aroma that gave a strategic point to shoot activity on the main street of Pushkar

I had stayed at a small but strategically located hotel by the name, Aroma Hotel. In Rajasthan the general trend is to build small rooms perhaps of the use of stone slabs that have a certain length. This hotel also had small rooms but it was in a very prime location. Two minutes on either side of the door one was in midst of all the action. They had a tin shed covered roof/balcony where photographers looked down on the busy street shooting people with long tele/tele-zoom lenses.

Camels were decorated by shearing and coloring various parts of the body. Though a picture for another story to be written with images in the future by me.

Fancy decorated walking sticks that captured my interest to walk in the shop cum workshop 

Any way I do require a break before some thing to monotonous. While moving to the traders and animals arena I passed some stalls that had very colorful sticks, walking sticks displayed for sale. The make shift stalls are quite a normal feature during the fairs held in India. There was always action within the tent any time of the hour I passed by be it the hours of the day or the evening. In each of these stalls was a burner placed quite in the center of the working area of the tent space. The burner was being used to heat up the bamboos to make them straight. Perhaps this burning also helped to hold the pins being used for decoration. Some times one needs a break from shooting the similar subjects from start of the day till evening.        

The artisans keep busy creating their stock for sale to meet the rush when pilgrims come in to the town. The photograph was taken at night time.

The young boy is busy doing the chore given to him by the elders of the family

So I made my move to walk in one of the tents to gather some information and obviously to shoot some pictures of the sequence of their beautifully crafted sticks. I chatted for a while and then requested permission to take some pictures as they worked and of their finished product. They were very obliging. These families of craftsmen come and live during the ten day fair period. Initially I had a feeling that these people could be from some part of Rajasthan. To my surprise these artisans come all the way from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh every year to participate in this Pushkar Fair. I have been to Ujjain for a day trip but I think I missed seeing such crafted sticks there in the market.

The green rubber fuel supply line to the stove from one of the kerosene containers kept at a distance for safety.

All make shift arrangements with out any fancy setups or technology.

One of the members making a spindle from a wire length holding it with his feet.

The wire spindle is hung at a distance (seen near the tent wall between standing bamboo stock 

Each member is a contributor in one way or the other in making of the decorative sticks.

Simple setup of a working area

The wire being rolled on to the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick

The wire being rolled over the stick with so much precision

A longer view of the display and working area. Behind the stock in the back is the residential private area for cooking and living. Though the working area is also used to retire for the night after covering up the opening with canvas/curtain to secure their stock.

A view of finished and raw stock

Yes it gets cold in the Thar Desert at night. The small ones busy lighting up a small fire. It is more fun away from home in such a fair and believe the kids enjoy the change.

The young beautiful lady of the family seemed to have managed the kitchen and other requirements of the family. When I photographed her she looked around shyly from the sides of her eyes if any one saw her being photographed. The others sitting on the ground were too busy with their work. She loved getting the attention of the camera focussed on her.

All members of the family work together taking care of doing one or other aspect from start to finish of crafting of the decorative stick. The tent in itself was working cum residence for them. The frontage had a display of various kind of finished decorative sticks including base ball bats. One side had raw stock of bamboo lengths. The near center had a stove where these bamboos were heated. On either side sat an artisan who worked to give beauty to the bamboos. The back wall covered the residential area where there could be a make shift kitchen. I avoided going there to maintain their privacy.

Assorted sticks, baseball bats displayed for sale.

These are some photographs to give visuals to my story of the fancy sticks.