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Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: Sept 15: Soft yet incessant hammering of the iron axe on wood breaks the tranquillity of the Kutchi Mohalla in Old Panvel. Two men are working devotedly on a block of wood, outside their home, trying to give it a purposeful shape. They not only use specialized machines for the purpose but also use their creative skills to give it a good finish. Gradually, over a week, the wooden block takes the shape of a wheel. The Kutchi family has been in this business of bullock cart-wheel making for the last 250 years and today Ismail Daud Kutchi is the owner of the only cart-wheel workshop here with his three sons who have taken over the reigns from here.

“Originally, we are from Bhuj (Kutch) but after drought struck the place some 400 years back, we came to Panvel. Earlier, Panvel was a key trade centre so we started with repairing sea vessels and ships that docked at the port. But the port closed a century back leaving us with no work. So our forefathers adopted this occupation,” he evokes.

But now he laments the declining demand for the same due to rising demand for iron wheel and rubber tyres. “Now-a-days people prefer wheels made from iron for making bullock carts over the wooden ones. But iron wheels harm the animals. They reduce their lives as its consistent use only hurt them reducing their capacity. But it’s cheaper and easily available so it’s more preferred,” complains Hanif Kutchi, son of Ismail Daud, who has enthusiastically taken up the family’s traditional business.

But every dark cloud has a silver lining, there are other takers of the same. People who love adorning their homes and showrooms buy wheels from here and use them as showpieces. Interestingly, there is one such wheel that is kept at Dubai’s Watch Tower as a representative of Indian art. Apart from this the Kutchis had also made chariot wheels for a Satara-based organisation. Currently, the trio are working on a ‘ratt’ that is used as a pulley in wells. “We are making this wheel for ‘Basera’, a Kolkhe based studio who need it for their regular shooting schedules.” And for this, the studio is paying them a whopping Rs.80000. “Actually, such orders are very rare. We are the only cartwheel workshop so, instead of paying Rs.10000 per day as rent for using these archaic things, the studio preferred buying it for permanent use”, he adds.

Earlier teakwood was preferred to make the cart but today babool wood being more economical is widely used. The wheel is made up of several parts such as the patta (tyre), the tumb (hub) supported by spokes usually a dozen in number. “Interestingly, the size of the cart wheel and its consequent height of the cart are determined by the size of the bullocks which in turn depends on the place where the bull belongs to. So, we have ‘Satara carts’, ‘Kolhapur carts’or ‘Sholapur carts’ which have gigantic wheels and ‘Khillari’ pair of bullocks is tall and belong to Bidar and Karnataka,” he informs.

The Kutchis have another claim to fame. They have won the ‘Suvarna Nagar Parishad’ award given to them by CM Vilasrao Deshmukh on 1st Sept 2002 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Panvel Nagar Parishad. They have also won acclaims from other socio-cultural organisations in the past but today, with the declining business the Kutchis are gradually losing not just recognition but also old clients.

“Our main customers are Satara and Sangli based though there are thin demands from Panvel, Kamothe and other nearby villages. The others who were earlier in cart-wheel making here have changed profession due to the same concerns. But we continue to be the pioneers,” he says proudly.

Swati Pandey