17/03/2026
a workshop for seeing, showing, learning, making, and celebrating handwork
Some hands are capable of doing both mundane work and magic; the hands which lift a load of sandbags and cement daily can also give shape to a lump of dark clay or, the pair of hands which relentlessly cook and clean can sometimes stich beautiful floral patterns on a kantha or a blanket made with worn-out saris. When we speak about hands, we speak about their fingers too, which have a direct and defining connection to our brain. They are the dense end points for many of the nerves, the vibrant sources for our tactile feedback, our sense of touch and several other cognitive functions. Guided by these ten appendages, some hands often live a dual life as “doer” and “creator.” So do the owners of those hands, naturally.
And, we at Chander Haat are delighted to bring some of those proficient, creative hands together to explore and celebrate hater kaaj or handwork. The contributor-participants in this seven-day-long workshop come from all walks of life and various places, carrying the skills of doing different kinds of things by hand. Like, the group of women from our neighbourhood Khudirampally, who stood the test of time– the trauma of displacement and hasty migration– know how to make tepa putul or tiny clay dolls, braid jute, and stitch kantaha. They are joined by a self-taught artist, a group of four men from an interior village of Bardhaman, who mastered the bamboo work, and an aging mother, who is keen to renew her hater kaaj skills, which once came handy for her family’s survival. The other curious entrants are, a visiting student of Indology from Germany, two academics from Slovenia, a graphic novelist from Kolkata, and couple of us, Chander Haat artists. The contributors demonstrate how they do what they do, and talk about the medium or the material they work with. Hater Kaaj with natural elements like bamboo, jute, threads, and clay are demonstrated, made, and discussed during the workshop. How memories and traditions are often rendered into various hater kaaj– this particular aspect is keenly looked into during the workshop. The fact that survival and hater kaaj in our country are often engaged in a complementary relationship is something that becomes a recurrent point of reference throughout the workshop.
Work of Hands is not a fenced, rigid set-up, rather a proposition for facilitating human interaction. We expect that the workshop is going to develop organically over the course of seven days and becomes an open platform to explore and celebrate handwork and life.
