My father is from Naya and so I was born here. I was given away in marriage when I was 11 years old. My husband worked as a mechanic and took me to his father’s house in Perua. We returned to Naya about 35 years ago and when the cooperative started here. Shyamsundar, a master of scroll painting, encouraged me to join. But I said, “I am too old, I cannot paint and I cannot sing.” He insisted and said, “You can try and at least you can work with clay, make clay dolls and figurines.” I had the desire to paint but could not. I did get my son to paint though and he learned quickly. Soon they took him to fairs and festivals to make and show scrolls. Then Dukhushyam also said, “Try to paint, you can do it!” And so I began to learn with the Samity cooperative. I learned the songs from Rani, especially the Tsunami, and also started painting scrolls. Nobody objected to my working, nobody in my father-in-law’s house painted, not even my husband. My father’s people did not paint either. Maybe in the previous generation, they did. Now our lives are better. There is a lot of joy when all 15 of us sit together with the Samity and hold meetings or just sing. Women’s lives have improved in every direction; there is also more demand for our work. We may have different ideas and argue, but then after discussion, we come to an agreement.

My name is Gulja. My home is Naya. We are four brothers and two sisters. My mother takes stuff for women to sell in this area while my father shows scrolls and brings rice, etc. My brothers earn money driving cycle vans. My elder sister married in this neighborhood. That is why we know how to paint scrolls. Most women in this village know how to paint. MY sister, too. I picked it up from her. Nobody in my father’s family knew it. I had never painted when I was there. Before my marriage in this village, I didn’t know how to paint. I’ve recently joined the committee. There are 15 of us. I’m learning to sing a little. I don’t know much since my husband never allowed me to participate. I wanted to go to the medical program recently but he didn’t let me. He said, “Who will look after your children?” I have to tend to the 2 goats as well. Who will take care of my young children when my husband goes out? I must do it.

We are in a terrible state. Since there is hardly any income we can barely manage to eat every day. I have 5 daughters. How can I arrange their marriages? I have managed to marry off one. Her husband lives with us. I’ve given my second daughter in marriage to the house opposite ours, but we haven’t met their demands in full. We have begged from others and given part. Her husband’s family still gets a lot from us. How can I run my family if I don’t get cash? My husband has no interest unless he gets cash from the sales. He hardly gives time to paint scrolls but tries to find other ways of income. All of us must eat. I paint here now and am learning to sing in the women’s committee. Now I’m learning properly. I’ve learned to paint a little. I’m being trained. My husband didn’t allow me to join the medical program nearby. He said it was because my children were very young and there was no one to look after them.

My parents would show scrolls, beg and come back and eat. Then my mother became pregnant again and my father decided to go back once more because he thought she might have problems in her pregnant state. So he wanted to go back to where he belonged. We went back and I had a brother who was born at home. I was seen then. I had some awareness by that time. I told my mother that my brother was so tiny, but it was difficult for my father to run the family alone. He could get a certain amount of rice from begging I would also get some if I went with him. I was so small that people would give me food. My father would take me at times, saying “you come with me and I’ll teach you the scroll songs.” I would accompany him and sing songs on Manasa pat, Sita’s abduction, Kaliyug and independence etc. I would sing along with him. I said, “No. You are struggling alone and people aren’t helping you, so why should they condemn me if I help you?” Then my father agreed and told me to go along with him and learn from him. I used to learn from him. When I was twelve I would carry bricks with him, working in a brick kiln. When I was thirteen, my father-in-law–Ajit Chitrakar came to see me for bride viewing. We were so poor that we couldn’t offer some sharbat or some rice. I wouldn’t lie to you–my father-in-law paid for their fares and brought my parents here to see my husband and his environment. We feel so sad for that. I then asked her to say no. My mother said, “No, silly girl. Ajit Chitrakar is a good man. And his son is also good.” I had no problem with that. How could I disagree with them? I happily accepted. I was prepared to marry whomever they chose. After my marriage, I went to my marital home. My in-laws used to love me. I stayed there.

Now we didn’t have any land. My father-in-law used to live on his Mama’s land. We wanted to build a house, but there was discord in our family. We didn’t have enough to eat. MY husband used to drive a trolley but couldn’t get work every day. Then he said, “Since we are having such problems I don’t want to stay here.” His father also told him to go away and earn somewhere else since there was perpetual discontent. My father-in-law is Ajit Chitrakar. I learn from him. He knew the songs and wrote them. I picked up some from him. I learned when we were living in the same household. He used to make idols, horses. Then we came back from Naya with Jyotsna when she was six months old. We live with Jamuna then and built our house. Then I learned from my Mama. But I don’t have any of her work now.

Now I have taken all of my husband’s work. He provides the ‘ideas,’ tells me the stories and I write the songs from that. My four daughters were born after I came here. My husband told me the story of Laden after he saw the jatra. He told me that Laden was hiding in Afghanistan and rebuked me because I hadn’t gone to see the jatra. I said how could I go with so many children? I make up the songs. My daughter Jyotsna writes them down since I can’t write. Then I compose the music. The women’s cooperative helped me much. As I was a member, I was involved in it though I knew nothing; no songs or anything. I was too shy, only a housewife. My husband helped me. A lot of husbands don’t allow their wives to go anywhere, but he sent me everywhere. If I were to go I would also become well known like the others. He supported me, as did the women’s cooperative. No, my husband didn’t object.

Even the Hindus have changed. They would turn their noses earlier saying, “you don’t change your clothes after using the toilet – we won’t touch you.” But the Hindus who hated us Muslims have changed. They tell us, “We are brothers. We are together now uniting neck-to-neck, shoulder-to-shoulder.” When the Munshi came, they used to shout, “Look, the Patidar is here.” They no longer say that. Rather, they tell us, this is your profession, “habibullah,” you do it. Now my daughters are learning the Koran Sharif and are learning Bengali. I’m also teaching them to sing.

In my parental home, they were really very poor then. My mother used to go out to sell bangles and brought us up. My father died when I was very young. I was a child when he died and my mother brought me up by struggling very hard. My elder sister was this high, my older brother this much. We are three sisters and one brother. My mother brought us up with great hardship. She couldn’t send us to school. Then my older sisters were married. Only I remained. Then my mother told me that I had to stay with her as I was very young.

Now, since she went out to sell things I thought I should learn handicraft. So I learned to weave date palm leaves into mats. I would make these mats and sell them and our family expenses were met somehow. Then I was married. When I came to my husband’s home, he said: “you won’t have to weave mats anymore.” Then I asked how our family would run? And he told me we would manage if I learned to paint scrolls. I started painting, we were quite poor. Then he taught me to sing, as well. Then I learned to sing and paint. He writes songs, also. My husband writes songs. He helped me a lot and pushed me upwards. Then he asked me to accompany him to Delhi. Rani and the others were in Delhi then. Now Rani took me to the fair and put our names down. We sold some scrolls. Since that time our condition has improved some. I shouldn’t say some, but quite a lot. Oh yes, our children have learned from us. But my youngest daughter paints from her own ideas. She is really smart. Wherever we go, to Delhi or Bombay, she will sing, paint, do everything on her own. If I tell her “Dear one, you take some rest, stop painting.” She will tell me “It will be good for me if I paint. I feel good when I paint; I can learn new things.” That is what she is like.

My father used to earn by displaying his scrolls in villages. My parents stayed in Singur Muri after they came over from Thekachak. They lived in a room in the house of a Bengali gentleman who had let them stay in that room. My parents, my elder sister and I used to live there. My father had admitted us to school there. The teachers used to teach us while I sat on their laps. I was very young then. I was sent to school but I would run away. That is why I couldn’t learn anything. My parents then came to Naya and started living here permanently. My sister and I would go begging. We were so young then, but how could we eat unless we begged? my mother used to go out in the morning selling cosmetics in villages. She would come back around the evening. I found out that other children would get more alms by singing scroll songs. We had to do something better than just beg. I would go with those kids, singing songs. my voice was sweeter than all theirs. Then, as I was going older, my father arranged my wedding. He did it without spending any paise, without paying any dowry. He brought me to my marital home and I ran away. Since then he never visited me there.

A daughter Manimala was born to me. I could barely get anything to eat there. Then my husband left us and married another woman. Initially I didn’t go out with the scrolls. I would sell cosmetics from a basket, going around the villages. I used to hawk stuff, carrying my daughter. I made very slow progress with a heavy basket on my head and lugging my daughter. I struggled hard. Again my husband brought his second wife home. I was his first wife. After my daughter Manimala was born he had to remarry. When the older woman came, how could I manage the expenses? There was no food. Then I told my husband that I would sell cosmetics from a barrow, while he had to start his repair work again. This is how we earned and ran our family. His second wife had no skills. My uncle asked me to paint some scrolls when I was going around selling cosmetics. He wanted to sell them for me. He told me to paint another since people liked my scroll. In fact they had asked for a few more.

I started to paint happily since then. I painted using different scenes. I show them in various villages and beg for rice and money. But scrolls don’t sell every day. I’d go out with scrolls, come back to cook, look after my children, tend to my goats and chicken and also paint when I got a little free time. I used to earn like this. As a result of living with my husband I gave birth to a baby boy. But he left us again. Four years later he came back once more and started crying and promised to never leave me. I told him then that I wouldn’t go with him to mind his home.

My mother had given me a tiny plot where I had made a small hut. I would stay there. He could stay with me if he wanted, but I wouldn’t leave with him (laughs). He agreed to stay with me. He brought his second wife here and she became pregnant once more. It was almost laughable that with all the misery around he left us again. Four months later he came back with another wife. The old one had been had been discarded. He would marry a woman, make her pregnant, leave her, and remarry. It’s better than before. My sons earn a bit. But I have a lot of debts. My family is running along, neither too well nor too badly. I have to ‘manage’ very carefully but can eat properly now. We don’t have to starve as before in spite of our debts. We can have dal/bhat and vegetables, fish and meat occasionally.

My name is Karuna, and I’ll tell you a little bit about my life. I was born into an extremely unstable family, and my mom and grandmother dedicated themselves to raising me. They sold bangles on the streets to make enough money to help us survive. My father left every so often, completely unannounced, so we could not depend on him. When I was seven years old and my dad was with us, he would show his painted scrolls and sing—I’d be at his side, holding his bag and helping him with his work. Two years later, he left again, and the women of my family were left to fend for ourselves.

At age thirteen, I married my husband, but no one painted or sang in my marital home. They tended to make clay dolls and birds and sell such things. It was rather boring. And what’s worse is that my husband was dirt poor and had no land to call his own. We lived with my brother-in-law, and his wife used to beat me. She and her husband told me that my husband and I should live separately. We didn’t tolerate their abuse, and we decided to move to Naya. Soon after, my mother-in-law came to Naya to beg us to return to their home, and we did. In the mean time, my sister-in-law continued to beat me, and I had a few children under those awful conditions. I’d work as a day laborer, make and sell clay dolls and do a lot of things, but with so many kids, we just couldn’t manage.

Then, I became really sick. I started bleeding profusely, and it seemed to everyone in the village that I had a tumor of some sort. Both my husband’s and my family could not figure out what to do, and there was a lot of conflict regarding which hospital I would go to, and how much the needed operation would cost us. My husband told me that we could not afford it. But my brothers rushed me to the hospital in Midnapur, and they admitted me immediately. From then on, there was a lot of quarreling between by brothers and mother-in-law about how to care for me. Finally, my husband stepped up and brought my children to me—he pulled the money and time together, and cared for me as I recovered. During the time that I was sick, one of my daughters died. Soon after, one of my sons died in a car wreck. The turn of events was really depressing, especially since my recovery and my grieving for my children happened at the same time.

When I returned to Naya from the hospital, I started learning the scroll songs and mythological painting from Dukhushyam, and my elder sister, Jamuna. My husband also began writing and creating scrolls that dealt with contemporary social issues. We’ve picked up a number of themes purely from observation. My two sons paint as well, as well as their wives. And we’re surviving without too much trouble on the income that we receive from singing and painting. Gradually, we’ve been able to buy some land. We have moved away from the dam, and we have a new home. We’re 30.000 rupees in debt, but we have a home! It’s wonderful, and despite all of the hardships that I have suffered in my life, I have grown to be content with my family and myself.

My parental home is in Paskura. We are two sisters. my father divorced my mother after we were born. Our grandmother brought up both of us. She had to struggle hard to bring us up because she was extremely poor. But somehow she managed to buy milk, barley, and sago to nurture us, get rice starch to feed us. My grandmother was pretty old by then, unable to work as hard as she used to in order to earn practically nothing.

She told me one day that she wasn’t able to feed me anymore and I had to work also. She put me to work as a main in the household. I had to wash dishes, clothes, sweep and broom and clean the cowshed there. I used to get my meals, some torn clothes to wear, as well as a little money. I used to stay there and help in the cooking also. I asked her if she had come to see me, and she told me she had arranged my marriage.

When I refused to marry at such a young age she told me that she was old and if she died no one would bother to arrange my marriage. She wanted to spend whatever little time she had on planning my wedding. I was unable to refuse her request. I have learned the songs from my husband. He would sing a little and I would pick it up from him. I am illiterate, so I would learn the songs by rote. Then I joined the training center and learned to paint and sing in the women’s committee. Now we manage somehow. Both of us sing and paint scrolls. At first, my husband didn’t want to go far. He objected to my going to paint or sing. I had a chance to sing in a good program once, on diseases and their prevention. But my husband didn’t allow me. He said, “How much do we earn from scrolls,? You needn’t participate in a medical program. I stayed at home.” Now, after you all started coming here, researched us, listened to our songs, filmed us, bought scrolls for good money, he has given us permission to sing and paint.

Now we manage somehow. Both of us sing and paint scrolls. At first, my husband didn’t want to go far. He objected to my going to paint or sing. I had a chance to sing in a good program once, on diseases and their prevention. But my husband didn’t allow me. He said, “How much do we earn from scrolls,? You needn’t participate in a medical program. I stayed at home.” Now, after you all started coming here, researched us, listened to our songs, filmed us, bought scrolls for good money, he has given us permission to sing and paint.

My name is Mayna Chitrakar. I was born in Naya. Jamuna Chitrakar is my mother. I have never seen my father Muhammad Chitrakar or called him father. I didn’t have a father from a very young age. My mother brought up the three of her children with great hardship. She arranged my marriage in Naya village. She used to sell bangles, ribbons, lac dye, and vermillion in the villages. She also used to sell clay dolls and showed scrolls to the villagers to earn. We grew up, nurtured by her from her small income. She really struggled to bring us up. When I was old enough I asked to go to school. My mother told me that since our father had abandoned her, how could she afford to send us to school in her present condition? She proposed an alternative. She would buy us some goats and we could start earning from them to augment the family income. Then I learned to paint from my mother. I started painting when I was seven and sang a little.

When I grew older, I asked my mother to admit me to the village school. After I cried and cried she let me. I studied until class two. Then, when I was twelve, she arranged my marriage in Nandigram. I went away to my marital home. I saw that my father-in-law had a large family of five sons and a daughter. My mother and law had died and my father-in-law didn’t stay in Nandigram. My husband was the eldest but all the brothers lived separately. They didn’t have any land. I suffered there too and had to go begging. I used to show scrolls and sing and earn some money and rice and somehow manage. I suggested we go to my mother in Naya. We would learn scroll painting and signing. I could do it already. I would teach him and we would start to paint at home and go wherever we were called. We could earn good money.

Now I have two sons. After they were born I explained to my husband that we shouldn’t have any more children. How could we bring them up? I had seen my elder sister have a lot of children that she couldn’t provide for. They didn’t have clothes. She couldn’t send them to school for lack of funds. She didn’t even have the money to buy simple medicine when they were sick. I don’t want any more children because I can see the problems. My husband can sing and paint well. So do I. I went to Australia once. I have received prizes from Rabindra Bharati, from my own state. We had a training center in Baroa where I used to teach the trainees. I have also helped to spread awareness about the dangers of pulse polio, malaria, and diarrhea by painting and displaying scrolls in villages. There Is a training center in Naya now. I have got a chance there. I will teach scroll work there. The local Muslims tell us that since this our profession and we earn from it, that we should do this well so we can maintain ourselves. They say, “when you are becoming famous for this art, why should you have to give it up?” Nobody in our society or the Hindus look down on us anymore.

I was born in my parental home in Diamond Harbor in North Parganas. My husband’s elder brother’s’ son had negotiated our marriage. My husband brought me to Naya after marriage. I used to make different kinds of clay dolls when I first came here. I had a sister-in-law who would manage the family. Afterwards, since my father was the sole earning member, it was quite difficult. There were five brothers and sisters, and meals were uncertain. We ate two meals some days and starved others. It was very tight. I was the only one who went out everywhere. I would go out for work. After marriage, I’d make clay dolls and go out to sell them. My husband used to work as a house builder’s assistant. On days when he didn’t have work, he’d go around the villages to beg. We struggled to bring up our five children.

Now my sons are painting scrolls, going out, and earning. I can sit at home now. I paint a little for the committee. My sons work all year round. All of them are painters. Nobody is idle. Once they had grown up my bad days were over. I am fine now, thanks to my children. I work a bit, but only when I fell like it. I joined the women’s committee to get some money when I can. In order to go somewhere, because I have never gone out. Nor has anyone taken me. I can’t sing very well. Many of us go. This time they sent me to Delhi. I never went anywhere. I’d learn from him. Suppose he had prepared the colors and gone out, I’d put some colors, or he had left a drawing, I would color it. When he asked who had done it I would tell him I had. He would scold me because it was bad. After doing this a few times, he asked me to do it slowly and learn. Then, after I painted for some time, he told me that I could learn and ti was fine. I like painting gods and goddesses. I really enjoy painting Durga and Kali. I also like the subjects of my daughter’s scrolls, but I haven’t been able to concentrate on them. I’m trying though. I’ll do those nice ones if I can.

I still feel like I’m crying when I think back on all the hardship we endured then. Compared to that my condition is very good now, more or less. We used to beg in the villages, even to work as daily wage earners. We had sowed seeds on other people’s land, tilled crops, carried hay, worked as a helper with civil masons. I have worked laying asphalt on the roads under road-contractors, cut earth to build dams. I have done everything for a livelihood, in order to earn, our life was spent in great sorrow.

My mother arranged my marriage. The groom had been married before but his first wife left him to live with her parents since he was too poor. Sadly enough I was married to this man. The very next day I stayed at my marital home. My husband would hold gunny bags open and I would fill them with broken tins, glass bottles, glass shards, plastic packets, etc. This rubbish would be thrown out on the street side, near the drain. I would collect them for the excreta of children in the darin. How can I talk about this shameful history? We would sell this rubbish to the buyer and earn. We ran our family like this. I gave birth to two sons and two daughters there.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law beat me frequently. I stayed there, enduring everything. Then I thought, “My grandmother had been married two or three times. My mother was married twice. She remarried after the divorce from the first.” Nobody will judge who is to blame. They will see that my mother and grandmother had more than one marriage. In case I leave my husband and marry again, what will people say? I then decided not to leave him despite all the sufferings. I had a lot of hope, dreams, expectations and reliance, as well.

I had never learned the craft formally from anyone. I picked it up from watching the painters and hearing their songs. I would bring some from my mother, spread them on the ground and paint on one side. I used to do it at night. I had no time to paint during the day as I had to go begging. I came back in the evening, fed my kids, put them to bed, and then sat with the scrolls. I would work very late – 2:30 in the morning, and some days I wouldn’t go to bed at all.

My grandfather, Dukhushyam, then advised me to learn it well so that it could help us. I told him that I was painting scrolls and showed them to him. He said it wasn’t enough to be able to paint on.y. We must learn to sing. Then I asked him to teach me. He said, “Ok, but you must provide me with tea and cigarettes.” I said “Fine, I’ll treat you to tea and cigarettes every morning.”

If we hadn’t learned this craft we wouldn’t go to the USA. You [the filmmakers] wouldn’t have taken us. I tell all the young people to learn this if they want to travel to different places. If they sit idle, nobody will take them anywhere.

My parents were extremely poor. We were five sisters. My father had arranged the marriages of four of us. I was the youngest and was married almost two years after he died. I was only twelve then. I would cook in their house and sleep at my mother’s house. I didn’t have any idea of husbands. I knew nothing about how to interact with a husband or how to treat him. I would cook for them and come back home and sleep with my mother. I had absolutely no desire to get married, as I was barely twelve. But my mother and sisters explained that they couldn’t collect the dowry money because my father had died, whereas the man wasn’t demanding anything for this marriage. They would even provide my clothes.

My uncle Dukhishyam advised me to tell my husband to start painting scrolls, otherwise, how could we survive? He told my husband to start and he would buy the materials like colors, paper, what I could afford. On top of that my husband wasn’t allowed to do any hard work. Then I said I would go out and beg because my husband’s scrolls couldn’t sell as soon as he made them. My uncle asked me to bring him paper, colors, paintbrushes, etc. so that he could teach my husband. He taught him to paint and sing. It wasn’t enough just to paint; I had to sing also. Both of use used to practice with Dukhushyam every day. He would correct our mistakes. We would sing along with him. He used to help a lot. He is our Guru. He has been the Guru of all the women scroll painters here. He has taught everyone. In fact, in the neighborhood of scroll painters, he happens to be the Guru. All of us have learned Purana songs from him.

For six months in a year, there is a slack period. We don’t earn much, then. But I go around the village, showing scrolls. I get five to ten kilograms of rice from people and some money. I show them in the cities and villages and people help me. This is how I manage. I am shy to go out alone, so I take my eldest son along. We are growing old and our ability to work is getting less. I’ve told them to look after their own families. After I said this, my second son has started eating separately with his wife. So has my eldest son. Those two have split away from their families. That is good. Their responsibilities will increase, the. So will their urge to augment their income. They’ll have to save and make progress. Brothers don’t stay together these days anyway. They will split.

I was born in Ranichak. My grandmother named me Rani since I was born in Ranichak. But I am not a Rani [queen], the wife of a king. I come from a poor family. My grandmother brought me up from a very young age. She gave me her breast milk. I grew up sharing whatever foods she had. She used to make clay doll so different kinds, carry them in baskets on her head, and sell them in the nearby villages. When I was about seven I had learned some scroll songs from my father. He then took me home. I would go with him when he went from village to village, showing his scrolls and singing the songs. I would sing with him. Gradually. I learned to paint and sing the scrolls from him.

When I was thirteen, my grandmother died. I was so heartbroken that I cried and was depressed all the time. She had brought me up, so I couldn’t accept her death. After the death, my mother arranged my marriage. I stayed there after our wedding. My marital family was extremely poor and the household was struggling. What could I do then? I used to go to the villages with my father and villagers would give us money and rice like we were begging. Then I started making clay dolls. I would paint them and carry them in a basket on my head to sell them at fairs. I would always take my mother-in-law with me. I knew a number of scroll songs but I couldn’t sing them in public. I was scared to sing them before my in-laws, brother-in-laws, and para-elders. I hesitated to sing in front of them. I would sing them so softly that people were unable to hear me. I had memorized songs in this way. I spoke to my husband. I also told him “your family won’t allow me to sing or display scrolls to people. What do I do here?” And it was also true that women used to face a lot of obstacles then.

Then I came here to Naya and cried to my mother that we couldn’t eat in my husband’s village. My mother said, “we are quite poor also.” She said, “if your husband stays here, why don’t you make some clay dolls, Lakshmi scrolls, etc? Sell them as well as go to the villages and sing the scroll songs. Then both of you could earn a little.” I used to secretly take a couple scrolls. I would put them in a basket of my dad’s and bring them to villages. Many of the people would tell me, “Hello Rani, you’ve grown up. You used to sing scroll songs with your father then. Why don’t you sing a couple now? We would listen to you, pay you, and give you some muri. We’ll even take you home and feed you.” Some time later when this art of scroll painting was about to die, people were singing songs at will. Some people from Calcutta came here. When they came to Naya, most of the old scroll painters were dying. Then a lot of educated researchers started coming here aiming to save this art from. I would sing songs to them and told them that I know many songs. I would say, “I have learned them from my father. I’ll sing them if you permit me.” They asked me to sing and I sang a number of songs. They were very pleased and said I sang well. They said they would like to arrange a seminar in Midnapur. I knew in my heart that I would paint scrolls and sing when he was not home. When I used to go with my father, nobody ever stopped me. Why should I stop now? If I went to the village people would come to know, so he forbid me. I cried a lot. I will not give up painting scrolls or singing even if I’m told to. My husband told me to come home with him. He came and listened to my song and saw my scrolls. He asked me, “If I start a group of women, will you teach them?” I said to him that I had no objection. He could make a group with all the women scroll painters in the area. Many of them know how to sing and paint. They can progress if they join the group, they will be benefited. When the district office went away, I tried to convince the women. They wanted to sing and paint in their innermost hearts but they were scared to admit it. I told them at a meeting, “aren’t you shy when you go to the village?” Now we’re asked what we do in a group. If we sing and show our scroll people will taunt us. I asked them if nobody ever taunted them when they go to the villages, and whether or not they liked it. I also said that they will have to spend their lives begging, they had no choice. If they were to sit at home they would end up receiving charity. I inquired as to whether begging was as respectable. If they painted scrolls and sang, they could earn as well as accrue respect. I spoke thus to the women of my village. Then we created ag roup of 15 in our village. Then they realized how essential it was for women to do such work. I formed a women’s committee with local women, and we told the district office, “Sir, we have formed a women’s committee”. He gave us a cheque for 15,000 Rs and asked me to buy materials for painting scrolls and distribute it among the women. He asked us to begin work.

My husband told me to come home with him. He came and listened to my song and saw my scrolls. He asked me, “If I start a group of women, will you teach them?” I said to him that I had no objection. He could make a group with all the women scroll painters in the area. Many of them know how to sing and paint. They can progress if they join the group, they will be benefited. When the district office went away, I tried to convince the women. They wanted to sing and paint in their innermost hearts but they were scared to admit it. I told them at a meeting, “aren’t you shy when you go to the village?” Now we’re asked what we do in a group. If we sing and show our scroll people will taunt us. I asked them if nobody ever taunted them when they go to the villages, and whether or not they liked it. I also said that they will have to spend their lives begging, they had no choice. If they were to sit at home they would end up receiving charity. I inquired as to whether begging was as respectable. If they painted scrolls and sang, they could earn as well as accrue respect. I spoke thus to the women of my village. Then we created a group of 15 in our village. Then they realized how essential it was for women to do such work. I formed a women’s committee with local women, and we told the district office, “Sir, we have formed a women’s committee”. He gave us a cheque for 15,000 Rs and asked me to buy materials for painting scrolls and distribute it among the women. He asked us to begin work.

My parental home is in Thekachak Village in Midnapur. My parital home is in Chaitanyapur, Sutahati. My in-laws had six or seven children. Due to the large family, there was great poverty and a dearth of food in their home as well. Because of that I left them and settled at my parental home. I got a little help here, and with my husband, I used to make clay dolls and idols. I did other work as well. We lived in poverty. Both of us worked tirelessly to run our family.

Then I had six sons. I don’t have any daughters. We had to struggle hard to bring them up. We worked like beasts to maintain them. Shaymsudnar and Rani formed an organization here. Both of them asked me to join them because I was an elderly woman. Our problems lightened by the scroll work. Before I learned this work, my husband and I would beg in the villages. Now both of us earn by painting scrolls. My parents were very poor. They had to beg to bring us up. My mother carried things she used to sell while begging. My father would take his scrolls along. They brought up their seven children through terrible hardship. I was 12 when I married young. I spent six years at my martial home. They were very poor, also. There were six sons and three daughters. We hardly got enough to eat. How could a family with nine children eat well? Things were bad before I joined the committee. I was too poor to eat full meals. I used to beg.

But things have gotten better. I am not so poor anymore; I have fewer problems. I can manage my household expenses well. I have met and interacted with many kinds of people; Westerners and Indians. I have told my siblings to keep this work going. I have told the to learn it carefully so they can earn through it and progress in life when we are gone. I encourage them like this: “You can see in this neighborhood, everybody is involved in creating scrolls. All of them are earning money from this work. Scroll painting is our major source of income now.”