From time immemorial, Indians have displayed their artistic genius on various tangible items of everyday use. Cooking utensils and other kitchen ware are no exceptions. In fact, utensils are so much part and parcel of India ’s household heritage, that most of us draw inspiration from the story of Draupadi’s Akshay Patra from the epic Mahabharata.How about a chance to see the cooking utensils of the past preserved in one place ? In other words, visiting an Utensils Museum !. Surendrabhai Patel of Ahmedabad has attempted and succeeded in building such a museum at his famous Vishalla village retreat that serves traditional Gujarati cuisine in an authentic village setting.
The museum is part of the Vishala Environmental Centre for Heritage and Arts (VECHAAR) founded by Surendrabhai Patel, an interior designer by profession. It has on display more than 2000 traditional utensils of all imaginable sizes and shapes
The idea of the Utensils Museum occurred, three years after the inception of Vishala in 1981. Surendra Patel had gone to a metal market in Saurashtra, in search of old utensils to give an ethnic touch to his restaurant. There he came across craftsmen who were flattening and melting hundreds of utensils, including a huge dinner plate, to get its worth. The sensitive designer was moved by this incident. He felt and understood what we were losing in the process – our heritage, creative work revealing the brilliance of human skills, the wonder of man's creativity!
Without wasting time, he consulted his friend Dr.Jyotindra Jain, a research scholar, who not only welcomed the idea but also gave valuable suggestions. Patel began the work in a mission mode, corresponded with museums – both national and international, visited and studied several of them, traveled around the country, scouting for displays and after years of hard work, the VECHAAR Utensils Museum took shape.
But, Patel’s museum is a refreshing departure from the conventional museums, we are familiar with. His museum maintains a consistent touch with the design of Vishalla, and gives a village-like feeling. A simple, muddy lane takes you to VECHAAR and ends in front of a large hut-like building. The architecture of the hut-like museum building is quadrangular in shape, mud plastered all over, like a hut.
One more distinguishing characteristic is that unlike other museums where the items are kept shielded in some case, here they are put in open, in consistent with the barrier free theme of Vishala.
You can see the beauty in the well conceived and crafted everyday things like pots to store water, utensils to cook and serve, spoons, rolling pins, or a huge vessel in which buttermilk is churned. Each piece was created by artisan for a specific purpose, catering to a person’s every day need. Apart from the innumerable brass, bronze and copper ware, there over 600 betel-nut crackers on display, each one more aesthetic than the other. An array of water containers – or lotas, displays high level of craftsmanship. The collections are from all over – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and even Central Asia .
In short the museum captures the magnificence of human spirit, the brilliance of vision, the perfection of skills and the wonder of creativity. The museum is a tribute to the creative efforts of man from the humble potter to the master craftsman. The collections also show the inherent and unique feature of man’s capacity to express and communicate. The objects represent a superb balance of art and craft. Impressed by the good work being done by VECHAAR, the Ministry of Tourism had sanctioned a Rs 5 lakh grant for museum’s development.
For people of today’s plastic age, household utensils are nothing more than things to be used and stashed away. But Surendra Patel’s unique utensils museum proves otherwise. It reveals the charm of yesteryears and a high sense of aesthetics combined with utility.
If you are a tourist in Ahemadabad, make it a point to visit the utensils Museum . It offers a unique experience of revisiting the life and lifestyles of past eras in these quaint outskirts.
Address : VECHAAR Utensils Museum, Vishala Village Retreat, Vasna Toll Naka, Ahmedabad. (PIB Mumbai Feature *with inputs from Bhavana Gokhale, MCO)
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