Where are those cute PUPPETS?

 Kathputli is a string puppet theatre, native to Rajasthan, India, and is the most popular form of Indian puppetry.It is controlled by a single string that passes from the top of the puppet over the puppeteers. Besides entertainment puppetry presents meaningful messages and an art form.

Puppets Of Rajasthan

Puppetry is an ancient, popular form of folk entertainment.
The tradition of handmade string puppets of Rajasthan is more
than a thousand years old.These string puppets in rajasthan is
called kathputlis. Every social gathering and village fair or
religious festival would be incomplete without them.These beautiful
and colorful puppets are hand made using wood and cloth. The head
the puppets are made of wood and colored according to characters
they depict in the shows.

Making A PUPPET

The typical Rajasthani puppet has a brightly painted face and a rough torso. Appropriate brightly colored maleor female costumes are fashioned by the puppeters themselves from patches of old cloths.The string puppets of Rajasthan are unique in their style and technique. These are hand crafted with wood and cloth. Wooden faces of these puppets are colored according to the characters they play in a particular act. Generally they are painted in yellow color with their hands are stuffed with rags, cotton and cloth pieces. 

Without any joints in hands and without any leg, these puppets dance to the tunes of puppeteers. Their absence of legs is not felt as they don beautiful Rajasthani outfits.

How To Control Puppets

A dark color curtain is used as the back-stage and a colorful curtain with three arches hangs at the front. The puppets are tied with dark strings, which do not show against the dark background, and dim lights are used. One of the popular characters is the dancer Anarkali who is hung by four strings. Her limbs are sewn in such a manner that with the slightest jerk several dance-movements can be produced. A Snake charmer is another attraction of the show.
During performances, the puppeteers manipulate the puppets with a whistling, squeaking voice and are interpreted by a narrator who also provides the rhythms. The puppeteer takes a ghungroo (string of bells) in his hands and plays it according to the rhythm. He makes a loop around his fingers and manipulates the puppet. Free movement is possible due to the absence of legs. A little jerk of the string causes the puppets to produce movements of the hands, neck and shoulder. Many puppets hang on one rope: one string tied to the head and other to the waist. Movement plays a very important part in this puppetry. The puppets are shown to have great speed and vibrancy. They are shoved towards each other with brandishing swords. Greetings and salutations are done by bending the puppets and leaving their arms to hang loosely.

Why Puppets Are Loosing Their Charm?






Today, most of the Rajasthan puppet theaters have lost their charm, due to the influence of cinema, television and video. But still puppetry is famous amongst children's, educators and communicators. In the olden day time these puppets were not only a source of entertainment but also provided moral and social education.Even the Rajasthan Government, today realizes the importance of saving this ancient art of folklore and keeping all the beneficial facts, the government took initiatives to open many puppetry theaters and regularly organise puppet shows in the countryside of Rajasthan.




Copyright..... Shreeja....

That was the time when everything was PURE

I am here discussing the past life of Indian villages which is now just in memory and i miss it a lot in this fast life of cities. In-spite having no facilities and knowledge as much as we are getting now-a-days, but the standard of living of villages life was in most purest form which was close to the nature.

Pureness has Lost

That was the time when everything was so pure and peaceful, i am talking about of Indian village living. Although village life is still exists but it is not the pure form of villages. From my mother and grandmother whatever i heard about our culture and village's life and whatever i felt in my childhood, i can say pureness has lost somewhere with the development of cities and due to migration from villages to cities. Now villages can be seen in under the effects of cities. I was nice to hear from my mother that in her time, how they used to cook their food with the help of earthen burners, and how they burn it with dry woods. That was the time when all the vegetables was in the pure form, no use of chemicals on their harvest and that is why its taste was delicious inspite having simple food.

Old techniques for making sauce or salsa

This image shown is of a type of a tool to make sauce or salsa which was used in villages. In modern times all of us used electric items to make any kind of dishes or starter and of course it saves a lot of time. But the real taste does not exists in machines. When i was child my mother used to make 'salsa' from this which is called in our language " sil-batta", it is made of stone and it is used by hand to grind the ingredients. Believe it or not but, electric machines makes our work easier but not delicious. I sometimes says to my mom to buy it because i really miss its taste, and i have bored from all the electric items, obviously not my personal computer, unless with its taste you will surely miss my articles.

Churning Curd In Village Style

Did you ever feel the experience of churning curd in village style? I am sure you didn't.
In Indian villages butter was made by churning curd with a wooden ladle shaped in a particular way. The head of the ladle is like a flower with five petals.
The curd is kept in a pot and the ladle is inserted in the pot and ropes are twined through the ladle and a person, normally the lady of the house pulls the ladle to and fro till the curd is churned thoroughly.
The butter will slowly start to appear and the ladle must be vigourously moved to unite the spread out butter and then water must be sprinkled and the hand must be used to gather the butter and taken out. This butter should be kept in a vessel filled with a glass of water to keep the butter from turning bad.

Indian Villages Lifestyle

Although Village's life was very slow and with lack of facilities but the standard of living was pure and healthy at that time. Green fields all around with clean and fresh air could be seen. Did you ever looked towards the sky in village? It was filled of tiny stars but impossible to see in today's polluted city life. That feelings is different,when you stares at sky which has thousands of shining stars and you sleeps in cool natural breeze, not in any artificial air of fan. In calm ambience, you take sound sleep and you wakes up early in the morning with sweet melodious voice of sparrows and peacocks. Your breakfast starts with milk or pure home-made curd and it ends on simple but delicious lunch and dinner. I think village life was healthier and little tough in comparison of cities but there was a satisfaction. The standard of living was such, that you did not need any exercise to keep yourself fit. In previous time, people lived long life till hundreds years because of their pure and healthy lifestyle. The uses of electric machines was not so popular at that time. They used to do lot of hard works even after that they used to saved some time for their hobbies and entertainment. Food and other vegetables were free from any impurity. Oh, i really miss it a lot and i can feel that pureness.