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| India's Aam Aadmi political part with its logo. blogs.cfr.org |
More
often than not we have come across museums of various sorts - museum
of arts and history, of natural history and sciences, of automobiles
and so on and so forth. Have you ever heard of or run into a museum
of brooms with out which we can't keep our place clean and tidy? It
is not good enough to deserve a museum. yes, there is one at
Arna-Jharna, in Rajasthan, India presumably established in
recognizition of this simple, household device's usefulness in our
society since the dawn of civilization.
The museum was founded by
late Kamal Kothari, India's leading folklorist and oral historian.
Kept
in the corner of a house after use away from visitor's mischievous
eye, a broom is not an object of art, adoration and appreciation. Nor
is it an important eathly stuff upon which one could compose songs
and poems. An organization called ''Rupayan Sansthan'' started by
late Kothari is taking care of this unique, museum. Initially, as one
would expect, the public display of brooms drew carping criticism
and even became a subject of gossip and mockery among the local
people. When ''Aam Admi'' a new political party contested last
election using broom as its election logo, popularity had begun
creeping in displacing wild criticism and sharp remarks. The new
political party's weird symbol - a simple, unassuming broom
symbolises eradication of rampant nepotism and corruption in the
government offices.
There
are roughly 160 varities of broom on display in the museum.
Taking the urban and rural surroundings into account,
these
brooms
are designed
for soft indoor
floors
(cement mosaic,marble,granite,etc) and
rough outdoor
floors
( cattle shed, court yard plastered with mud or cowdung );
the former reqire brooms with soft,
tender
fibre with flowering end such as 'panni
grass'
known as ''sirki'' and the thin soft end of 'daab
kass'
and 'jeriya
grass',
the
latter require date-palm/palmyrah
or
coconut
leafblades.
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| Indian woman with a broom. www.bigstockphoto.com |
The
communities involved in professional
broom
making are, unfortunately, economically backward and are living in
poverty
in a growing large
economy like India.
Some of them are nomadic
and migratory. The
Banjara community makes
brooms from
grasses
(panni); Koli,
and
Bagariya communities
of
Rajasthan
from date-palm
(khejur); and the Dalit
community makes
brooms
from
bamboo (baans).
The
nature and the
materials of grooms reflect on the ecology of the
place they come from. These are some myths associated with brooms.
The indoor brooms should kept horizontally on floor preferably below
the cot to invite fortune - ayeswaryam and ward off
evil spirits.
They are not kept near the pooja (prayer)room and safe vault where
cash and jewellery are kept. Brooms are never made on inauspicious
days - Ammavasai
day -
no moon-day.
In
Tamil Nadu and else where in India if, people, seriously engaged in
verbal fight,
are driven to the extent of showing ''broom'' to others or mentioning
it's name, it is a big insult resulting in both partys exchanging
serious blows
with one another!.
Ref:
http://www.arnajharna.org/English/Broom_Types_of_Brooms.
