The Stuff of the Earth

By knowing a single lump of clay, you know all objects made of clay. All changes are mere words, in name only. But clay alone is the reality - Chandogya Upanishad, 6.1.4 

Many of us work white collar jobs which require very little manual labour. I can claim that I exercise my fingers a lot since I am in software. But even this typing does not come very naturally to me. I have to shift my focus back and forth between the screen and the keyboard. At the same time, the hands alternate between the keyboard and the mouse. While all this requires a certain coordination, it is nothing compared to what is required for any skilled work. The point is my job mainly involves the mind. 

Years ago when in college, I had to do a rotation in workshop from carpentry to welding to smithy. Each of these required constant focus and coordination if you wished to avoid any injury. I quite enjoyed the break from the intense academics we had at that time. Smithy in particular fascinated me. Working on a white hot piece of iron on the anvil with a hammer to transform it to an S-shaped hook (with tapered ends to boot) was quite a thrill, especially when the instructor demonstrated it. Never mind that I didn't really end up with that perfect S or tapered ends. Or that it took me multiple rounds of  heating and beating. Or that it left me with a blistered hand for weeks. But it was rewarding to see the hard metal bend and twist in real time.

Doing something like this requires a different kind of concentration from creating computer programs. I like to have a change of pace now and then where I shift from the cerebral kind of tasks that I do every day to something that is more physically rooted but no less demanding. Occasional forays into cooking or baking bread appeal to me in this regard. Some friends of mine have a workshop in their garage where they can do some woodwork but I find that most of the tasks are done by machines now. It's similar to using a bread machine to make bread bypassing the entire exercise of kneading the dough. Now, please don't get the impression that I do a lot of baking and cooking. I do not. Anything that we do regularly turns into a chore.

Recently I have been watching a show on pottery where a few amateur potters compete for the title of best potter. I enjoy this very much as lumps of clay are turned into all sorts of objects in a matter of minutes. Getting your hand into wet clay and shaping it must surely invoke the child in you but it takes real skill to make usable objects in the process. Applying glaze to and decorating the pieces is yet another level of artisanship. The show is eminently watchable. And for a change, it is the judge that often breaks into tears, not the contestants.

Pottery is intimately connected with human civilization. We human beings have been making pots for over twenty thousand years at least. It amazes me that someone got the idea to use clay and make vessels out of it. It could not have been some accidental discovery. I mean they made pots big enough to bury people in. I understand pottery predates the wheel but the wheel must have been a huge turning point in the potter's world. Before the wheel, they apparently used to roll the clay into long pieces and coil them to get the desired shapes. 

Pottery and brick-making were great advances in our history no doubt. Bricks of standard size have been found in many ancient sites. I recall the kilns set up by brickmakers in the countryside that I used to see when I was young. They would be smoking for days. I wonder sometimes if my generation has had a unique experience of seeing the old and new in one lifetime because of the pace of change during the last few decades.

At home, we stored drinking water in earthen pots to keep it cool. On long train journeys, we carried water in a pot. As air-conditioned coaches were not common then, the entire train would bake in the summer heat and the only respite was the cool water from the pot. If you forgot to pack one, you could always buy one at the station and fill it up. The earthly smell and taste of the water somehow reminded you of rain and served to heighten the cooling effect. 

I remember earthen pots being sold by the roadside where the potters set up displays of pots stacked to impressive heights. Nowadays these have perhaps been replaced by brightly coloured plastic pots. The women coming to the community tap to collect water bring these rather than the earthen or brass ones they used to.  I am sure the potters' numbers must have dwindled considerably as a result of the slump in demand for their ware. 

Or may be not. The recent decision by Indian Railways to bring back the clay cups to serve tea may provide a fillip to the potters (by the way, drinking steaming hot tea from a clay cup in the middle of summer is quite an experience, or should I say, adventure?). Additionally, hand-made pottery has actually become an elite thing now. It is sold in home design stores and online. You can get a basic drinking water pot for $35 (made in India and exported to the USA)! I sure hope that you can still get pots and other earthen ware easily in India. But in the age of plastic, they seem to have become a luxury.