Lac bangles losing sheen

Hyderabad: The good news first. The best lac bangles in the city are found in Lad bazaar. Now the bad news, there are just a handful of master craftsmen left who make them.

Lad bazaar is the bastion for bangles and the best ones are made on a clay pot called Kumpeti. These bangles are better, have more glitter and the finish is way above than the ones made in a batti. But the tribe of artisans who work on the kumpeti or Ungeti as it is called in Urdu is diminishing.

People working on a clay pot have to deal with every aspect, right from deciding the size of the rings, melting the Lac and fixing the stones, whereas the work is divided among people who work on a batti. So no one wants to work on a clay pot anymore. There are just two others working in this medium in the city.

With the advent of workforce from Rajasthan making their way into Hyderabad and the use of batti as against the Ungeti gaining ground, traditional workmen have been left behind.

Ratanalal Sharma, a resident of Shaalibanda says, "It is pure economics that has forced traditional artists out of business. People working on the batti churn out 12 bangles in half an hour in comparison to three on a clay pot.

Only one person can work on the clay pot to four on a batti. Thus the shift." Among the few remaining workmen who specialise in making bangles the old way is, B Rao who is 67 years old and has been working in the same place for the last 40 years.

"My sons too have started working on a batti but i will continue to work here like this. People who need a good finished product value my work," says the master craftsman.

Even as artisans working on a batti churn out 30 sets, each containing 14 bangles a day, Babu Rao's dexterous hands churn out magic as he poses for us with the 'Teen Dhandi' as he prefers to call the tool that he has seen thousands of bangles slip into its mould.

Happy daughters and happy wives still make a beeline to the narrow lane opposite Charminar asking for Babu Rao's shop, for those who value authentic Lac bangles, it has to be made on a clay pot.