Always cheerful and constantly bustling about,
Minoti Mandi is an extremely gifted traditional wall artist. We first met her when we were documenting Sohrai Wall Art of the Santals in 2016-17. Minoti is considered to be the most talented artist in her village and is the go-to person for all wall decoration needs of her neighbours.
Minoti lost her mother as a child of five and before she was ten, her father too passed away. Brought up by her grandparents, her childhood and that of her elder sister’s was spent in abject poverty. Yet, seeing that she yearned to join school, her grandparents allowed her to attend school, even though they could have done with an extra pair of hands, however small, at home. But barely had she completed class III, when her grandfather passed away. Her hopes of an education dashed forever, Minoti was compelled to stay at home to help out her grandmother and sister.
Along with small chores, she was also required to help her grandmother with all clay related work around the house. Thus, she would help her repair the mud walls of their home as well as make mud ovens. Step by step, she learnt to sieve and mix the clay with dung, repair the walls of gravelly clay, and slather them with a plaster of sandy loam and dung. She was gradually encouraged, under the watchful eyes of the loving old lady, to create motifs on the walls, drawn from her own imagination. Starting with leaves and creepers, then moving on to small houses, birds, trees and other motifs typical of a rural ambience, the young Minoti carefully observed her grandmother and faithfully tried to emulate every flick and sweep of her wrist and fingers. Assiduously practising for the next few years, she mastered both the technique as well as the traditional motifs.
A bride at 16, Minoti came to her in laws village in Banshraya, armed with her artistic expertise and was soon ensconced as the most skilled traditional artist in the village. Thirty years down, she continues to hold that post. Besides ornamenting walls, Minoti is an expert at building homes and making the beautiful clay ovens that Santals use. Her skills are much sought after in the village.
Minoti has a son and a daughter. Her 16 year old daughter, busy with her school, has not felt any compulsion to acquire her mother’s traditional skills, but helps her with the clay preparation.
Other than her household chores, Minoti supplements her husband’s meagre income with small daily wage earning jobs, earning anything from Rs 120 to Rs 150 a day, fetching or carrying clay etc. She also collects dry sal leaves from the forest which she stitches together to make into sal plates – eking out a paltry income of Rs 25-30 from every set of 100 plates sold at the village market. Minoti’s dearest wish is for a sal plate making machine to be installed in their village.