>From wooden to metal ploughs and more: the Charis of Parra
By Claude Alvares
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The rains have commenced. As every Goan knows, this is the
time for work in the fields. Ploughs are dragged out. Oxen
get extra rations. Women covered in plastic sheets gear up to
plant paddy, working ankle deep in water without complaint.
Goans revel at the sight of farmers ploughing fields as they
pass them in their transport to cities for work during the
day. At night, the din of chanting frogs provides reassurance
that nature has completed one more cycle and started another.
One man in Bardez, however, loses his sleep during the
crucial months of May and June just prior to the start of
field work: Mohan Chari, Parra's blacksmith.
Forty-eight year old Mohan manufactures and repairs metal
ploughs. He's been doing this work since the age of 17. His
customers come from near and far to find him, not just from
around Bardez, but from Pednem and Salcette as well. When
something goes wrong with a plough, he is bound to repair it,
even if the farmer turns up at night. Ploughing cannot wait.
Ploughs that need substantial repair trickle in throughout
the month of May and by the end of the month a forest of them
can be see in his shack, each with the name of the farmer and
the village written neatly on it in chalk.
These two months, Mohan has repaired more than a hundred
ploughs and made a dozen new ones. Farmers who come to see
him recall their fathers coming to see his father about the
same business: ordering a new plough or having an old one
repaired.
The Chari family of Parra is the original inventor of the
present, extensively used metal plough of Bardez. The first
piece was made by Bhikaro Mest, Mohan's grandfathe's brother
or granduncle, during the Portuguese days. Kirloskar's had
introduced an Indian version of a European plough in the
Indian market. Khikaro Mest bought himself a piece. The old
plough is still in the shed: its only concession to time has
been some scarring due to rust. From this piece, the Bardez
plough was born.
The Chari family is still referred to as 'Bhikaro Mestager'.
Mohan's father, Shankar Dattaram Chari, Mohan and his brother
Santosh -- who works with him in the smithy -- were brought
up in the working traditions of Bhikaro Mest.
His grandfather had expired when he was merely two. The pure
metal plough of the Charis, when it was first made nearly a
hundred years ago, cost farmers the princely sum of three and
a half rupees. Today, the same model costs Rs. 2500, due to
the high costs of iron in the market.
Each plough made by the Charis, if carefully maintained, will
last a minimum of 30 years. Farmers were reluctant at first
to switch from the wooden to the metal plough because they
were worried the metal tip might hurt the oxen's hind legs
during ploughing.
Today, the wooden plough is almost extinct, except
in areas like Sattari. When I sit with Mohan on a
rainy day, in front of the bellows, I can see that
all the equipment he needs to manufacture a new
plough is available within the shack: the hammer;
the anvil; the charcoal; the bellows.
He purchases the iron sheets, nuts and rivets from the
market. The metal parts are first cut according to a standard
form, then hammered into shape after the metal is made
red-hot over the coals. Sometimes his wife will turn the
wheel that supplies air to the small open furnace fed with
charcoal, sometimes a passer-by or neighbour. This is an
honourable profession that can be found in any Goan or Indian
village.
The Charis have survived because they provide a service which
Government agencies or private companies have never been able
to master: producing low cost, well adapted tools that meet
the specific individual requirements of their customers --
and their animals.
The technical ingenuity of this craftsman is
amazing. I never knew, for example, that some oxen
refuse to turn left when ploughing a field, so for
their owners Chari will design a plough that
attaches to the right side of the handle with a
curvature in reverse.
Ploughs are made to suit the height of the animals (small or
large). Different soils (clayey, sandy) demand a different
design. Chari can also manufacture and repair 100% wooden
ploughs. These are works of art. A wooden plough is assembled
from wooden parts crafted and assembled so precisely that
none of them will shift or dislodge under the hard pressures
of ploughing, since no nails can be used.
What happens in the Chari household when the ploughing season
ends? They shift to other jobs: metal work including the ever
popular window grill and gate, vehicle repairs, name-plating
on marble (a trade kept exclusively for Pradeep, the third
brother), carpentry including doors and lintels, and a host
of other miscellaneous jobwork including dog cages for animal
shelters.
Mohan's garage is the only
