Thursday, March 16, 2006

Pichkaris re-engineered

Pichkari is a small tool, generally made of plastic material with a cylinder and piston assembly, being used by people of all ages to sparge colored water on others and celebrate Holi - the color festival. Playing Holi with pichkaris is a tradition now. As the festival approaches, the shops in the market are seen reshaping their face with eye-catching powder-colors that we apply on each others face and a range of pichkaris hanging over them. No wonder that school children rush to these roadside shops with their parents to get one, in addition to the one bought last year. And the scene has not changed since decades. Since its introduction the pichkari has taken different shapes like the original piston–cylinder assembly, pistol shapes, bird and animal designs and many more seen hanging at the roadside shops as Holi approaches.

It was Holi yesterday and as I passed through the market, I was curious to see some new designs introduced. One such design made me say that even the pichkaris are being reengineered to serve in a better way. A small boy was demonstrating a new design. Two one and a half litre cold-drink bottles made of plastic were joined together for storage and hanged on the back like a sack; the piston-cylinder assembly physically connected to these bottles through a small plastic/rubber tube. I paused there for a minute to see the design neatly. It was awesome. This was the best design of pichkari I had ever seen since my childhood.

1 Comments:

Blogger Renu Vyas said...

1st timer here..enjoyed it :)I'm a big time Gulzar fan so enjoyed the "triveni" section..I'm extrememly fond of Pune for personal reasons and have always wanted to learn Marathi but never did get around to it..:)

12:40 AM  

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