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The Furnace at Uchhehra<br />
that I visit and write an article for her site www.bringhomestories.com. Eventually,<br />
I was commissioned to do a photo essay instead. So when everyone else had left for<br />
Delhi, I went to Uchhehra.<br />
I just loved zooming into the blistering furnaces – red hot embers set against the dark<br />
soot of coal, made for dramatic visuals. As luck would have it, my camera battery<br />
packed up and wouldn’t recharge. The Tambekars called up a local photo studio<br />
requesting a loan of their Canon DSLR, for a couple of hours. Waiting for the camera<br />
to arrive, I had chai and cashews at Harish Tambekar’s office and listened to the story<br />
of how the brothers had brought the labour and technique of making the ‘Hada’ to<br />
Uchhehra, from Mirzapur in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh.<br />
The ‘Hada’ is a brass vessel that is used exclusively in the Vindhyshetra [Maihar<br />
included]. Though used exclusively in this region, the ‘Hada’ was never made there<br />
and the Tambekar’s factory is the only one of its kind in Madhya Pradesh. Integral to<br />
the rituals of gifting at marriages and part of a bride’s dowry, the ‘Hada’ is valued like<br />
gold. The process of making the ‘Hada’ is quite complex. Not only do copper and zinc<br />
go through an ordeal by fire before brass is formed, but they endure a lot more heat<br />
and beating too, before the gleaming gold vessel is sold in the market.<br />
The metals go through at least four stages of firing in furnaces that are heated at<br />
varying degrees of 800 to 1200 degrees Celsius. Nothing captured my imagination<br />
as these did. I was irresistibly drawn to the furnaces, again and again. I squatted,<br />
leaned, knelt and did whatever was needed to get the right shot without realising that<br />
my red cape – one that I had been nick-named Red-Riding-Hood for [by the rest of<br />
the group], was sadly covered in soot – the red and black almost as dramatic as the<br />
furnaces. I wasn’t happy.<br />
But, I laughed it off in an incident that followed. I needed to go to the loo and was<br />
politely escorted to the toilet used by the management staff. I didn’t expect to see just<br />
a urinal, so asked in surprise - “But what about women?” Imagine my consternation
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