The urge to find hidden corners of Karachi took me to Kumhar Wara Located well within the city but not known to most, there are at least 100 medium sized cottage style industries engaging at least 15 workers each who used to work under direct sun throughout the year to produce a priceless handcraft present in almost every house in form of pots, money bank or a pipkin.
It was a good learning on how a clay was given shape on a potter's wheels. The toughest part was to give a tower like shape to the clay dough by balancing it exactly at the center of fast spinning wheel.
In next few seconds the tower transforms into shape of what is desired.
Next comes the stage when the round pipe like shape is converted to the pot like a magic done with bare hands.
Decorative lines and edge banding are then created again using fingers without involving any tools.
The pot is then removed from the wheel and placed under direct sunlight for a day to dry.
Then the pots are moved to man made oven made with same clay and the heat strengthen the mud to rock like hardness.
This is how the transformation is done and then reach our homes.
According to the workers involved in age-old craft "Our youth, particularly those who have acquired higher education, do not want to continue with their ancestral work. Some even are ashamed of their background who deny the fact that they belong to the families of Kumhars".
At an average one team of workers make approximately 80 pots in a day and the wage they get only let them survive another day.
That's all about a brief visit to the Kumhar Wara and please leave a comment if you find this effort interesting.
Thank you and Stay Blessed.
Naeem
My Facebook page
My Youtube Channel for Videos
