Paper making workshop from natural fibre in Pearson Palli

THE BAMBOO LEAF PAPER MAKING WORKSHOP IN PEARSON PALLI,SANTINIKETAN

The bamboo paper making workshop in Pearson Palli had to be delayed because of the west Bengal assembly elections. The sandals villages in Birbhum like other places of West Bengal have also been affected .It have gone to such extremes where a whole village has been divided into two halves in reference to political color. Strangely political colour has replaced their community identity. So although initially before the elections the collection of the dry bamboo leaves which are seasonal was completed, to start the workshop myself and Borhan Hansda who was my other collaborator in this project thought that it will be wise if we can initiate it once the election results were out and the village life will return to normalcy.

So  once the elections were over and the results were out we approached the village older generation and shared our interest in initiating a bamboo paper making workshop. The community members were quite eager and provided us an old broken house previously meant for a ritualistic site. But because of the Visva Bharati university boundary walls that ritualistic site had to be shifted so that mud house was never reutilized for further cultural activities. It was an appropriate site for the workshop just opposite to the University construction site. A group of young members from the village were provided who took up the initial responsibility of supervising the workshop space. Musoi Hemram, Shib were some of the more active members who participated in the initial preparation.

For a period of two weeks together with the support of the villagers we repaired the house and finally beginning of June it was ready for conducting the workshop.

Initially we once again had a meeting to share the information about making paper with natural fiber. Then on 3^rd of June we invited the community members to participate in the paper making workshop