Andretta Pottery Studio in Himachal gets a fresh burst of youthful energy

It can take just an instant to change a life. Ask Shubham Sankhyan. He was studying aeronautical engineering in Delhi when his father, Jugal Kishore, had a massive heart attack in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra valley at the age of 46. The eldest of three siblings, Sankhyan returned to his village, Andretta. His father did not survive. 

 As the senior manager and mainstay of the Andretta Pottery Studio, Kishore had given almost as much to the enterprise as its founders, Mansimran “Mini” and Mary Singh. With the couple soon to turn 80 and Kishore no longer there to steer the boat, the small, lovingly nurtured village enterprise appeared rudderless. Till it was decided that Sankhyan would give up aeronautical engineering and mould clay instead.

The story I narrate is from 2014. It is now July 2018. I have already met Shubham Sankhyan on my first day in Andretta. Just below the charming Mirage guesthouse where I am staying, construction activity is in full swing. At least 20 labourers are working day and night to set up a 3,000 sq ft new section in Sankhyan’s house. The space will house students who come to the tiny village to learn pottery.

The classic Andretta design

A stone’s throw from the new structure is Mini and Mary Singh’s own little corner of paradise. Lovers of ceramics have flocked to their leafy home since 1983. The couple started pottery sessions in the tiny village and made such a success of it that Andretta today is renowned for its pottery. 

I meet the Singhs on my third day in Andretta and listen to Mini’s story. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Delhi Blue Pottery — founded by Mini’s father Gurcharan Singh — was “the” place for studio pottery in India. Located near Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi and steered by Das and later his son Mini, this is where the city’s ceramics lovers came to learn the art of pottery and to buy items previously unavailable in India. It was also where Mini met his wife Mary. 

In 1983, the couple decided to move to Andretta. The initial days were hard as he and his wife worked and made saleable items with a single helper and also drove to Delhi to sell their products to their only buyer at the time, Fabindia. 

Andretta Pottery Studio's founders Mansimran ‘Mini’ and Mary Singh

After a few years the couple started offering three-month-long, residential pottery classes, for an all-inclusive fee of Rs 120,000. The sessions ran two or three times a year. Students came from all over the world. Mini says that although only 30-40 per cent of those who learnt converted it into a profession, almost all their students grew to love clay. Between the students, the sales of pottery and individual sessions, the village enterprise began to thrive. 

Mary says that they have had hundreds of students from all over the world come and live with them, and that their lives became “entwined with ours” and “their problems become ours”. Now, as they both approach 80, they feel they don’t have the kind of energy this requires and so the baton is being handed over to the next generation.

Shubham Sankhyan, who now manages the Andretta Pottery Studio in Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra valley

I spend a delightful two hours with the couple whose exchange reveals a type of camaraderie only 38 years of companionship can bring. They remain close to their first love as the trust set up after the Delhi workshop closed still holds exhibitions at Delhi’s Anandgram and other venues, keeping alive and giving artists an opportunity to display their work. The void the loss of Kishore has left in both is evident — their retelling of the incident takes more time than anything else. 

After I leave their home, I visit the pottery studio a few metres away. Andretta Pottery is as down to earth as the couple I have just met. The “studio” is a simple structure with some kilns and potter’s wheels, and surrounded by stunning greenery. And the “showroom” is just an honest shed with some lovely items on sale. There’s a little museum with a Rs 10 entry fee that has attractive old pieces, mainly works by Gurcharan Singh and some by the Singhs.

Before I leave, Sankhyan tells me he’s looking forward to running the studio. He knows that meeting the high standards set by Mini, Mary and his father will be a task, but he has some ideas of his own. His engineering know-how has already come in handy — he recently added three fully automated electric kilns to the pottery. As he takes over the reins, it remains to be seen how the 23-year-old will mould the tiny hill enterprise that grew to be an institution.