Interview | Daricha Foundation traces the roots of folk and tribal arts – West Bengal

Interview with Daricha Foundation’s founder Ratnaboli Bose

If one of the scenes that you remember from Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk is where Mamata Shankar serves goyna bodi to Utpal Dutt, then you could be a friend of Daricha, a one-stop knowledge portal aimed at documenting, promoting and disseminating Bengal’s folk and tribal culture.

Conceived by Ratnaboli Bose, Project Daricha traces the roots of performing arts like Jhumur and Raibneshe, crafts like kantha and lac dolls, art forms like alpona and patachitra and more.

Bose was working with ITC Sangeet Research Academy when she realised there was very little about the traditional art, craft and music of Bengal and other states of India on the Internet. “Whatever little information is available does not explore any particular genre of work in detail. A formal documentation of crafts and artists, at least on the Internet, is extremely necessary in our times,” said the founder and secretary of Daricha Foundation. […]

Another special feature of the website is a calendar of folk culture events and interviews with experts. Each month, a particular artist/e is highlighted. […]

In the beginning, Bose was met with suspicion wherever she went. During her last visit to Purulia about a year back, she met a 17-year-old girl from the Birhor tribe, which has only 75 members at present according to government records. “This girl made ropes for a living. I asked her what her dream in life was. She told me she wanted to go back to school. She had studied till Class VIII and her father had married her off.” It is these faces and dreams that inspire Bose to carry on.

Source: All about lost arts at a click
Address: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140511/jsp/calcutta/story_18252098.jsp#.VsRHyhgkLUO
Date Visited: Wed Feb 17 2016 11:13:50 GMT+0100 (CET)

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