Probashi by Vidisha Biswas

Probasi : a journey through Seth-ni-Pol, Ahmedabad

by Bidisha Biswas

compiled as a part of the course: Visual Culture Documentation Graphic Design Semester - 5 9 - 10 - 2014 Course faculty: Immanuel Suresh

I came to Ahmedabad in 2012, the year I joined NID. Being a travel junkie as I am, I took an instant liking to the Old City of Ahmedabad as soon as I got a chance to explore it for the first time in my first month here. Since then I have been a loyal visitor to the beautiful chaos of the Old City, especially the Lal-Darwaza - Teen-Darwaza - Manek-Chowk area. I have gone there reason or no-reason, travelling, exploring and immersing in the amazing mysterical maze of the streets which were all so similar yet so distincly different in their characteristics. And yet, very sadly, after all this exploring and endless trips into those galis, I remained entirely uninformed about a single street called Seth-ni-Pol where dwells thousands of people of my homeland. Living in the same city, almost 2,000 k.m. away from home, we were the Probasi Bengalis.

I heard about Seth-ni-Pol for the first time from Suresh. We were discussing about possible areas to cover for visual culture documentation when he mentioned this place, saying there were Bengali people around, and he had also seen a saloon with a bengali signboard! So one Saturday me, Kunal, Michelle and Aman went out for a documentation trip on a connector street between Jama-Masjid Lane and Relief Road. It was super hot, super chaotic and on top of that it was raining! So there we were four lost souls madly searching for the by-lane of a by-lane of a by-lane, battling a traffic which moved at a speed of one metre per one minute, and literally juggling with our umbrellas and cameras and sketchbooks! We finally found the place. It was about 2

in the afternoon. It was a semi-dark lane, puddles of water here and there and very few people in sight. We couldnot really find what we were looking for, so we decided to give up for the day and return back. But since it was raining and we were already stuck, we decided to have chai. And to search for the stall we moved just 2 metre ahead and there it was! There were shop after shop with hoardings and signboard written in a very innovative Gujrati-styled-Bengali handlettering! It was already late afternoon and we were starving. So as soon as I said that this shop (picture above) read, "Preetam Sweet Shop" everyone wanted to taste their food. We ended up having ethnic Bengali samosas which tastes very different from the ones generally available in this part of the country!

As our initial rush of joy upon finally finding our destination subsided, we noticed that the lane as far as we can see were full of signboards and name-plates all in Bengali. The signs in the picture read : Tridev Touch. This was a new word we couldnot decipher at the begining. Every shop in the vicinity seemed be some touch shop! As we were getting highly confused, we decided to ask a person what it meant. The meaning which it came be was that touch wss the testing of the authenticity of Gold or Silver before moulding into jewelleries.

"We require a jewellery craftsman for our factory! FULL or HALF craftsman will do! The pay will be good. If you want to work on per gram basis, we are open to that as well. Very convenient place to work. 98******** contact this number. Come visit once, you will definitely like it. "

This extremely funny advertisement to recruit people caught my eyes. Also that it is written in Bengali so that the people who are already working there can bring in more people need a mention!

As we proceeded on, we went ahead and asked people around if we could go in to see the craft of moulding Gold. Apparently most of the buildings in that tiny lane were Gold hubs. And most of these buildings did not have any gatekeepers or any security systems. "Not many outsiders come here. And this place is built on trust, we all deal with the same matrial. Who and why would someone steal?", says a middle aged Jewellery dealer who has a small shop at the basement of the building. As if to prove it true, we walk inside to find goldsmiths handling sheets and bars of Gold in open shops, measuring and cutting them to the required dimensions.

We came across these two very helpful persons who owns a shop in the building and coincidentally, they were not Bengalis. They very eagerly shared their works, their livelihood and their stories with us. They explained how things work and how much effort is put into one peice of jewellery before its taken to a showroom. As they came to know that we were designers from NID, they showed us more samples and techniques of their works and even showed catalouges containing designs of jewelleries, which is somewhat confidential.

Generally the crafting of Jewellery is very delicate. As the Gold is heated to mould it into jewellery, to cool it down it is immersed in diluted Sulphuric Acid.

The mould of different jewellery is made by pouring alloy on hollow wood.

The Jewelleries made by these artisans are generally on bulk orders and are sold at various high end Show-rooms across the country.

No two pieces of similar looking Jewellery is actually same. Variations happen naturally while moulding the Gold. Even while making a Jewellery following the design of a catalouge book is not exactly accurate.

The work eco-system of this place consist of the Seths or the owners of the business, the workers and the dealers-cum-contractors. The worker class is majorly consist of Bengalis. I encountered thouands of Bengalis in such a small place, so far away from home, for the first time that day; especially in a place like Ahmedabad.

But I was already aware of the fact that the major man-power of the jewellery industry comes from labourers from West Bengal. The condition of these people are so poor back in home, that they choose to leave home and come this far to earn that extra penny. With some it has even be so, that they are 2nd or 3rd generation Bengalis settled in Ahmedabad along with their entire families. There were also people who has established independent Jewellery manufacturing bussiness by themself and now no longer work under any Seths or anyone above them.

Not only that the Bengalis had penetrated the Gujrat Jewellery manufacturing market, but to convey somethings better, especially to advertise or visually communicate, like these calenders, Bengali language is used. So if even anyone of these worker takes back a calender when he goes back to his village in Bengal, high probability is some more people might want to come back seeing the work oppurtunities here!

And just because there are innumerable amount of Bengali people flocking in one region, the business is not anymore Just limited to Gold Jewellery manufacturing. We saw food, machineries(beside), mobile services(above) and many other independent business own and run by Bengalis there now.

With all the mysterical twists and turns as it is, Ahmedabad opened up yet another amazing locality to me, which is Seth-ni-Pol. It may not have been a home away from home, but the congested by-lane where all you can hear is people chatting and communicating in Bengali and all you can see around is signboards and banners written in Bengali; it surely gave me the feels of any busy marketplace straight out of Bengal! With a hope to return again for some other reason maybe,we bid goodbye to this place and walk headlong into the heavy downpour that prvails outside.