[Reader-list] [Fwd: Jhoola Post No.2]

[Vivek Narayanan]

Hi this is continuing the little saga of the Jhoolewalas...part 3 comes 
tomorrow...

*SARAI POST 2 : The making of the Jhoola*

* *

We have new Jhoolewalas to talk to now. Our search in Jangpura (Delhi) 
yields a bounty – we find around 9 Jhoolas neatly parked on one of the 
roadsides. It of course takes 3 days to track down the owners, narrowly 
missing them at times.

This group is more motivated than the others, and the self proclaimed 
leader of the Jhoolas is proactive and seems to understand our project 
very well. He says that they have been filmed in a forest location 
earlier, though I have my doubts about that.

The conversation this time is about how Jhoolas are manufactured. We 
learn that the most of the work that goes into making the Jhoolas is 
done by the JW (for Jhoolewala from now on) himself. He first figures 
out which one to make, and then collects / buys iron scrap from the 
markets, cuts them up into the required parts. He then takes all this to 
the local welder (/mistri/) to be welded and finished. The resultant 
grey & black monster is then painted at home and assembled with pins & 
wheels for the required mechanics.

Most Jhoolas cost between Rs. 7000-9000 to make, which makes us wonder 
about earlier estimates from the other JWs that placed it near 
20-25K..anways, that’s how it goes..

We learn that there are two types of Jhoolas – the ones that are pushed 
through the /muhullah/ (neibourhoods), and the larger (and sometimes 
electric) ones that are used in carnivals. We express our primary in the 
former, and the JW rattles of the names of the 3 types of Jhoolas 
prevalent in Delhi. (He says these are the only ones ever made, and he 
knows since he has been doing this for 14 years now.) To elaborate, 
these are the merry-go-round, the ferris wheel and the rotating cars.

A peculiar thing about the Jhoolas is the removal of the little wheels 
that give them motion in the evenings, or when going on a break, since 
scrap junkies seem to steal them quite often. So the provision of 
removable wheels becomes an additional design constraint.

Many of the issues in the making of the Jhoola are similar to those in 
traditional crafts – of disorganized, but highly intuitive methods; of 
honest attempts at aesthetics; and successful accomplishments at economy 
– of material, costs and labour. What stands out, like in crafts, is the 
fact that the Jhoola really so much more than an artistic creation for 
pleasurable pursuits; it is the primary bread earner for a small slice 
of society.




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