At the fabulous Dastkari Haat Samiti fair held in Dili Haat in the first fortnight of this year, I was especially intrigued by one tiny stall. Everyday when I passed it, regardless of the time of the day, it was so surrounded by people that I couldn’t even see what it was selling. When I finally managed to peep in, I was even more intrigued. On display were some sundry birds crafted out of iron, agricultural implements and some kitchen utensils. Why were so many people flocking to buy this stuff?
I saw a lady walking away from the stall with an iron pan and asked her about it. “I just had to buy it! The craftsperson just gave me a long lecture about why we should all be cooking in iron vessels and I became convinced I needed to change...” It was rare to come across a rural artisan who was such a good salesman, so I decided to have a chat with him.
His name was Hanuman Singh and he was a Ghadia Lohar, itinerant iron smith, from Tonk in Rajasthan. Descendants of Maharana Pratap, Singh’s ancestors travelled from village to village selling their wares. Not much had changed in the production process since the old days. Singh and his sons continue to hammer heavy sheets of iron into different shapes, polished them until they shone like silver and sell them to villagers. “We usually make agricultural implements, kitchen pots, pans and so on. However, business is no longer that great in the village, so now I’ve got to sell in places like this,” he said gesturing around.
His marketing skills were clearly strong, I commented. He insisted, however, he didn’t try very hard to sell his wares. “I love what I do and think it’s my duty to suggest healthier cooking methods to as many people as I can,” he said. Non-stick utensils, common in modern kitchens, were quite bad for health, he said. “When the Teflon coating from a pan scrapes off, it enters the food being cooked in it,” he said. In contrast, cooking food in iron utensils was the healthiest way of cooking, he said. It increased the iron content of food, in some cases by up to 20 times — with none of Teflon’s ill effects. Additionally, iron is a great heat conductor and easy to maintain.
“Other than these bugs and butterflies that I’ve made because city people seem to like them, I still make what I’d normally sell in the village. But somehow, the things I say make more sense to people here!” he said. I bought a lovely gleaming wok and a pair of tongs from him, determined to change my kitchen. But when I showed them to my cook, she laughed: “In the village, only the poorest of the poor cook in such vessels. Everyone aspires to buy non-stick and stainless steel!”
That was when it struck me that the saucepan man from Tonk must have to encounter such attitudes everyday in the village. Yet his enthusiasm for the humble iron utensil was such that he managed to convince random visitors to choose it over more “modern” alternatives. As I tempered my new wok with salt and a little mustard oil, I pondered the life lesson that Hanuman Singh Gadiya Lohar taught me. It is not important what exactly you do. If you respect it, take pride in it — the people around you will do the same.
