Day 247-All For A Pail Of Water

GN Rao

Picture by GN Rao - The Hindu 9 Mar 2010 in an article entitled "All For A Pail of Water"

I was googling images of  -A pail of water- when I saw this picture. It was taken by Mr. GN Rao and published in The Hindu, India's national newspaper on 9 Mar 2010 in celebration of International Women's Day. This picture shows a group of tribal women fetching water from an agricultural well at Govind Tanda Karepalli Mandal in Khammam District, Andhra Pradesh. I dug  a little deeper and found out that the Khammam District has a sizable tribal population of the Banjaran people so these women are likely to be Banjaran ladies. No wonder, I thought...

Now, I found Mr. Rao's picture only yesterday and I don't want to sound like a braggadocio (don't you just love that word) or a fanfaronade (and this one too), but when I first saw the thumbnail of Mr. Rao's picture on Google Image, I thought it was mine.

Scene composed for "Fetching Water" a post I did more than 1 week ago (2 posts down) 

Alright, maybe for a split second only (and if Mr  Rao is reading this, he will probably want to shoot me-and not with his camera-for my audacity) but you must surely agree that there is some similarity between my Banjaran girls and the very adventurous ladies in the Khammam District.  I have to confess I was mighty pleased with myself. At first. Art (dare I say it) imitating life without me even knowing. Until I realised of course that Life had taken a leap my art did not manage. The women in the Khammam District were incredibly braver than my dolls would ever be! So kudos to Mr Rao for consigning this special moment to posterity!

Sami ur Rahman

Picture by Mr Sami ur Rahman entitled "--to fetch a pail of water"

And while we are at inspiring pictures, I have to share with you the works of 2 more photographers I have recently found. The one above is by Mr Sami ur Rahman whom I discovered in the same search.  Would you believe that this picture was also taken in March 2010? These ladies were fetching water in the Thar Desert, the world's 9th largest subtropical desert that spanned between Rajasthan in India to the Sindh and Punjab province in Pakistan. 

Picture by Mr Sami ur Rahman entitled "A Helping Hand"

Mr Rahman is a retired government servant living in Lahore, Pakistan and thanks to him, I will never look at a government servant the same way again. Who knows what kind of a giant artist is behind that desk looking at you looking at him, already framing a picture in his head. Mr Rahman has been described as  not only a great photographer but a great gentleman too, with all the qualities that a gentle soul must possess. I believe his work is also a testament to that. I was lost in his Flickr album for what seemed like an eternity on Sunday afternoon. Breathtakingly, I was transported back to various places in Pakistan,  the country where I fell in love and could never forget.

Claude Renault

Picture by Claude Renault entitled "Keta. Ludyia. Gujarat"

The picture above was taken by Claude Renault of a girl named Keta Benesar fetching water to prepare tea in her kitchen. Keta lives in the village of Ludyia in the Great Rann of Kutch. 

Claude is a photographer from Brittany, France. One of his love is India where he regards almost as a 2nd home. One day I hope I will have a chance to meet him when we are both in India so that I can shake his hands and tell him how his pictures have touched me to the core.

 Claude Renault's "Home. Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh"

This is just one of the many, many pictures by Claude that I love. Thank goodness for these miniature clay water jars or I would never have been able to just pick two of Claude's work for this post. It is impossible for me not to be affected by the photos he took. Aesthetically mindblowing, each picture tells a story I can relate to because of my project here. His blog was left opened at my laptop yesterday at home and also at the one in my office today. I must thank Minka of Minka's Studio who gave me the link to Claude. Somehow she knew instinctively that I would love his work after reading just a few of my posts. 

At this moment, all I want to do is to make miniature scenes of all these pictures by my favourite photographers. I  want to thank you both whole heartedly for allowing me to share these photographs here and for the kind words in your emails.

My Own Pails Of Water

Picture taken last night

This is the reason why I was googling the images of a pail of water. I wanted to make two for my tribal house.

 Pail of cucumber with cucumber skin shavings 

I made this food pail first. When I was in the ashram, one of the chores we did in the morning was to cut the cucumbers and carrots for the garden salad to be served at lunch.

 Pail of cucumbers floating in water 

The vegetables were put into a pail of water like this one and we just cut them with knives and our palms as the chopping boards, slice by slice into the pail of water. These cucumbers were bought in JJ market, Bangkok. The bits of green you see are cucumber skins that I made from tiny flower petals.

I have always tried not to make my food containers look like they have corroded too badly for obvious reasons. I mean who will want to use a rusty crockery for food? Not even the hardiest of dolls, I always say.  It was not easy for this one as I wanted my pail to look used and a little dirty. I didn't do a good job. Verdict: Not pleased but I don't want to waste my cucumbers.

 Just finished "rusting"

When I removed the stem from this pail, there were 2 holes at the bottom so I put a tiny piece of aluminium to cover the holes. That was also why I decided I would rust the inside of the pail as well. 

I thought that once I added water (I used glue for water), the depth and density of the glue would trick the eye into not seeing the aluminum foil. I was right. It even stood up to the scrutiny of the camera in macro.

 Picture taken after I wet cloth and drape it over the pail.

 The other thing I found out was how to style a cloth in a setting. Would you believe it is simply water? Well, of course, just like in real life. Many of you probably knew that already but not me.  I have always had trouble with displaying cloth in my setting, from  a sari over the edge of a bed to  billowing curtains to just putting a blanket over a doll's knees. This time,  I tried making the cloth wet first with just water and true enough, it was easy to drape it over anything.  After the cloth was dried, it stayed pretty much in the position that you left it. This was exactly what I did with the rag over the pail of water. 

 Picture taken 24 hours later . Rag stays in same place, nicely folded.

For this rag, I had also lacquered it with gloss and then a matt varnish but I don't think it is necessary. If you let it dry naturally, it will be even more realistic. Verdict: Happy but may want to make the water a little dirtier and yet translucent enough to still see the rust at the bottom.

The Before Pictures- Big Pail with the "stem". Galvanised pail on a stick for beautifying garden.

Big pail- 1 1/2" high (not including sides) and 1 1/2" at its widest

Small pail- 3/4"tall and 5/8" at its widest