Page 24 - The Hindu 3 Mrch 2019 Ad Free

Indian Library
10 FOCUS DELHI THE HINDU Magazine
Sunday, March 3, 2019
POWERPUFF GIRLS
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
A sea
change
Six fisherwomen from Andhra
Pradesh feature with their food
cart in this award­winning Ratna and her team today whip up prawn
short documentary
NIVEDITA GANGULY
he rising waters of the Bay of
Bengal offer the perfect
backdrop to the bustling
TVisakhapatnam harbour.
Fisherwomen with weather­beaten
faces are hard at work, collecting and
sorting the catch, before they set out
on their market rounds. These women,
often underpaid or unpaid, make up
nearly 60% of the workforce in the
booming seafood industry, and a new
#70929
documentary attempts to shine the
spotlight on them.
The Invisible Hands by young
filmmaker siblings Shrinkhla and
Shrayansh Pandey is the inspiring story and the help of activist Arjilli Dasu.
of fisherwoman G. Ratna who opened a
food truck with five other women from
her fishing colony. The nearly nine­
minute­long documentary won the
third prize at a short film competition
conducted by International Association
for Women in the Seafood Industry
(WSI). WSI is a Paris­based not­for­
profit created in 2016 by a team of
seafood professionals and gender
issues specialists from across the
world. is in Class XI,” she says.
Ode to labour
The film was showcased at
international conferences in Thailand
and Spain, and will also be screened in
France at the International Film
Festival of Fisherfolks from the World
this month.
“The documentary is an ode to the
women in the Visakhapatnam fish
trade. They have empowered the
industry with their significant efforts in
A new life Today, Ratna and the other fisherwomen who run the food truck each take home Rs. 8,000 a month. (Far right) The award-winning filmmaker support activities like unloading the
siblings Shrinkhla and Shrayansh Pandey. K.R. DEEPAK catch from fishing vessels, and selling,
A curation of some of the most interesting
CREDITS news films and videos from around the wold.
Apollo 11 Tarini
TODD DOUGLAS MILLER, 93 MINUTES NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Fifty years have passed since man first landed Set to air on International Women’s Day, this
on the moon, and this documentary aims for an documentary tells the story of the all-woman
authentic account of the time through archival Indian Navy crew that circumnavigated the
footage. Director Miller worked his way through world last year. The film includes “rare footage
nearly 11,000 hours of recorded material for this. from the on-ship cameras”.
THE HINDU Magazine DELHI
Sunday, March 3, 2019
drying and transporting fish. They are
the invisible hands,” says 28­year­old
Shrinkhla, a management graduate. The
film was shot with a basic Nikon D3100
complete. “The most challenging part
camera and took about 20 days to
was making Ratna understand the
significant role she is playing in
spearheading change,” says 25­year old
Shrayansh, who recently completed his
B.Tech from GITAM University in
Visakhapatnam.
Ratna comes from a fishing colony in
Mangamaripeta, and has two sons. In the
documentary, she talks about the
hardships faced by fishermen like her
husband who set out for sea before the
break of dawn. The narrative sets the
tone for a story of everyday struggle and
unpredictability that is the life of the
c
pakodas, fish balls, and fried pomfret a
nd mackerel. They set up the business
in 2017 with a ₹10 lakh grant from the
State government
fisherfolk. Ratna talks of the times when
her husband could not go to work
because of an impending cyclone, about
how the children could not be sent to
school because there was no money for
fees.
The turning point in her life comes in
the form of a red food truck called the
Fish Nutri Cart. Stationed on Beach
Road, this is where Ratna and her team
today whip up prawn pakodas, fish balls,
and fried pomfret and mackerel. They set
up the stall in 2017 with a ₹10 lakh grant
from the Andhra Pradesh government
The film ends by capturing the sea
change in the lives of the women. Each of
them today takes home ₹8,000 a month.
“It is running well so far. We have
requested the government to give us
another van for other locations like
Bheemunipatnam or Rushikonda,” says a
visibly elated Ratna. Her joy turns into
pride when she talks about her children:
“My elder son is a marine engineering
student in Madurai, and the younger one
The Jews of Leeds
SIMON GLASS
This documentary uncovers the “lost world” of
Yorkshire’s Jewish population that migrated from
Europe in the 19th-20th centuries. Glass also
explores his family history, his great-
grandmother having been one of the migrants.
11
Download Indian Library App
Sacred elements Gulikan Theyyam at Tharanthatta Karimchamundi kaavu in Kasargod. THULASI KAKKAT
A CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
Bhagavathi, but has recurred across
‘Where have my sacred groves all over North Kerala.
You have to look no further than
Nandapuram Sreekrishna Temple,
where the Vishnumoorthi Theyyam
and the Gulikan Theyyam hold annual
groves gone?’ performances. Unsurprisingly, a recent
consultation with the astrologer again
revealed that the Theyyam ritual itself
ought to be replaced with more
Besides the ecological consequence of A conventional Brahminical temple
such a development, a second threat When the Theyyam was a rituals to obtain divine favours. Like
looms large over the pantheistic sacred ritual, its performance the kaavu, will the ritual performance
origins and identity of Theyyam. A was in the nature of an too fade or morph into something else?
gradual Brahminisation has uprooted offering to the deity. And the Only time will tell.
the primal spirits from the rock and Meanwhile, the theyyam that has for
the wood of the sacred groves they forest, the deity’s domain, was so long watched over the land and its
used to inhabit. Unlike Brahminical the performance space denizens must come to its own rescue.
temples, the kaavu features no priestly The Brahminisation and the loss of the
rituals or lighting of lamps during sacred grove have not escaped the
non­Theyyam times. And the rituals kinds of ritual Theyyam) had ceased notice of the theyyam, I observed.
are performed by the people for several years at this grove, which During a recent performance, the
themselves, not by priests. Thus, the was situated on a property owned for Kadayankathi bellowed at the village
sacred grove remains closed for most generations by a feudal lord. At the elders: ‘Where have my groves gone?’
of the year, which allows the insistence of the villagers, the ritual The answer perhaps lies in a question
wilderness to grow back. The was revived. The villagers consulted an the Pethalan posed during the
theyyams, however, are now lodged in astrologer for advice on the rituals to performance to his gentrified cousin,
brick­and­mortar temple structures be followed. The astrologer divined Palenthayi Kannan (originating from a
outside the sacred grove — and that the gods and goddesses were local myth, but whose identity is now
worshipped through rituals unfamiliar cramped inside the confines of the subsumed by the Narasimha avatar of
to the elemental deities, and their sacred grove. The only solution was Vishnu). “Did you christen me
favour is mediated by the priestly their re­consecration in a temple Kaatumoorthi (primitive forest deity)
classes. The evicted theyyam takes complex outside the grove. A priest because you found the name Pethalan
with it the sacral protection extended was given the charge of invoking the uncouth?” he asked.
to the grove. favour of the gods and the village
celebrated the consecration with an (The photos featured here are part
From grove to temple annual Kaliyattam. of a project called Lost Wilderness that
A grove located in Kasargod district in And thus the kaavu faded from the won the India Habitat Centre
North Kerala — the Periya Bhagavathi Periya Bhagavathi kaavu, and it is Photosphere Award last year.
kaavu — illustrates the changes certain to become the Periya A selection is on display at
occurring in and around all of Kerala’s Bhagavathi ‘temple’ in no time. This India Habitat Centre,
sacred groves. Kaliyattam (one of many story is not restricted to Periya New Delhi, till March 18.)
Wild Karnataka
AMOGHAVARSHA J.S. & KALYAN VARMA
This ultra HD documentary on Karnataka’s flora
and fauna is narrated by David Attenborough. The
filmmakers spent more than 20,000 hours in the
field and shot over 400 hours of footage, braving
several threats, including blood-sucking leeches.