Remi's favorite driver approached me on the street the other day and asked me about taking pictures. I thought he wanted me to take pictures of his family, so I said sure, bring them along in the morning and we can find a nice backdrop and do some photos. He didn't show the next day, so I forgot about it. Showed up this morning. Turns out he just wants to take me out to take some pictures, and go up to where Remi is painting murals at the school. All this would be still ok, except that I foolishly had taken a glass of freshly blended grape juice the night before and had a lot of rumbling in the tummy stuff going on and the odd rather painful cramping. Enough said. Right in the middle of taking photos in a potters village I struck down by Ganesha's Revenge in the middle of the street and had to tell the driver to take me home right away, I need to change my clothes. What fun!
There is a lake to the south of Puttaparthi, usually dry cracked mud, and a road that goes around it and up to Pondicherry just to the east of Puttaparthi, makes a nice circle tour. I particularly wanted to see a small roadside shrine just on the lakeside, seems to be the earthworks of an old bridge or pier abutment with steps climbing up to the flat top of the platform. Last time I had been very charmed by the spot, very beautiful view out over the lake bed under the dappled shade of huge old trees. This time there was a little water in the lake, they have had a few good monsoons in the last couple of years, but someone had cut down the big trees and reft the spot of all beauty, grace and magic. Looks like it is used more as shrine again, lots of white paint splashed about, but I mourned for India there.
Around on the other side of Puttaparthi Sai introduced me to a potters village. I was fascinated by the big pit kiln the potters were firing their ware in. I had done quite a bit of primitive type firing back when I made pottery. The sawdust firings in barrels worked pretty good, but the pit firings just took off and flared up in the wind and gave the pottery thermal shock right when it didn't need it. Clay is very temperamental. There are two places in the process where it is critical to keep the temperature rising very smoothly. Right at the beginning while you are driving the last of the water out of the pots and in the middle of the firing where the alumina-silicate bonds begin to break and the silica melts and starts to migrate into the pores of the clay. We could manage to keep the fire smoldering along quietly enough for the first part but eventually that prairie wind would whip up great gusts of flame and crack most of the pieces we were firing at this critical juncture. I saw how the design of this kiln was so much better. There was a large basin of rock constructed with pots piled in a heap at least as high again with a thick layer of thatch on top. But enclosing the whole was a stone wall higher than the whole kiln, to keep the wind out. The stone basin collects heat, lets some air in from the bottom, and additionally along the sides broken pots were set onto the walls to vent additional air into the stack. Very nice design. Can see how they would have a far higher success rate than we ever did with our heaps of straw out on the bald prairie.
Pity the ubiquitous green and yellow plastic water jugs people use now have almost destroyed the business of Indian potters. You mostly see these clay jugs hanging tied to balconies. Soak them down with water, put your fruits of vegetables and milk products in them and the water evaporating out of the clay will keep your food cooler than the ambient air temperature.
There is a lake to the south of Puttaparthi, usually dry cracked mud, and a road that goes around it and up to Pondicherry just to the east of Puttaparthi, makes a nice circle tour. I particularly wanted to see a small roadside shrine just on the lakeside, seems to be the earthworks of an old bridge or pier abutment with steps climbing up to the flat top of the platform. Last time I had been very charmed by the spot, very beautiful view out over the lake bed under the dappled shade of huge old trees. This time there was a little water in the lake, they have had a few good monsoons in the last couple of years, but someone had cut down the big trees and reft the spot of all beauty, grace and magic. Looks like it is used more as shrine again, lots of white paint splashed about, but I mourned for India there.
It reminded me of what my daughter has told me about the dangers of dieting. When the body is in a starvation situation, more calories expended than coming in, the first place it goes to rob cells to meet the deficit are from the muscles and organs. It does not use fat cells until those resources have been used to the point of danger. In the starvation condition that India as a whole exists in, the resources that people go after is not the fat of the rich or super rich, but the heart and lungs and organs of the land itself. Wood is very expensive in this part of India, hardly any trees left on the hills, all gone for firewood and the construction boom in Puttaparthi. Their other functions of creating oxygen, moving water from underground into the atmosphere and blessing us witheir shade and long lived patience are nowhere near as important as fueling the money economy.
Around on the other side of Puttaparthi Sai introduced me to a potters village. I was fascinated by the big pit kiln the potters were firing their ware in. I had done quite a bit of primitive type firing back when I made pottery. The sawdust firings in barrels worked pretty good, but the pit firings just took off and flared up in the wind and gave the pottery thermal shock right when it didn't need it. Clay is very temperamental. There are two places in the process where it is critical to keep the temperature rising very smoothly. Right at the beginning while you are driving the last of the water out of the pots and in the middle of the firing where the alumina-silicate bonds begin to break and the silica melts and starts to migrate into the pores of the clay. We could manage to keep the fire smoldering along quietly enough for the first part but eventually that prairie wind would whip up great gusts of flame and crack most of the pieces we were firing at this critical juncture. I saw how the design of this kiln was so much better. There was a large basin of rock constructed with pots piled in a heap at least as high again with a thick layer of thatch on top. But enclosing the whole was a stone wall higher than the whole kiln, to keep the wind out. The stone basin collects heat, lets some air in from the bottom, and additionally along the sides broken pots were set onto the walls to vent additional air into the stack. Very nice design. Can see how they would have a far higher success rate than we ever did with our heaps of straw out on the bald prairie.
Pity the ubiquitous green and yellow plastic water jugs people use now have almost destroyed the business of Indian potters. You mostly see these clay jugs hanging tied to balconies. Soak them down with water, put your fruits of vegetables and milk products in them and the water evaporating out of the clay will keep your food cooler than the ambient air temperature.
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