Women personalities from different sectors being feted in an event ‘Stree 2024’ at Manit in the city on Sunday. | FP Photo
Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The three-day National Conference and Expo, Stree 2024, ended at Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology on Sunday. It saw participation by women who have achieved eminence in different fields. Free Press interacted with two prominent women.
Excerpts:
Europeans come to learn my art
I am a Kani tribal from Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala. As a child, my parents and grandparents taught me how plants, their parts can be used for healing the sick. Traditional healing and Ayurveda are complementary to each other.
Padma Shri Laxmikutty Amma, traditional tribal healer, Kerala | FP Photo
However, Ayurveda practitioners get recognition whereas traditional healers don’t. This should change. Earlier, tribal people were owners of forests, now we are slaves. Forest department rules don’t allow us to collect herbs and medicinal plants from forests. That is one reason why people from European countries come to me to learn my art, but our own people are not interested.
To remain healthy, one should do physical activity daily and eat homemade, baked and steamed food. Emphasis on millets is alright but they should be grown organically. Women don’t do physical labour. They use gadgets for household work. That is why Caesarean deliveries are becoming common.
-Padma Shri Laxmikutty Amma, traditional tribal healer, Kerala
Puppetry will never become extinct
I am a graduate in communication engineering from an Indian university and in computer networking from an American University. Once I visited a puppet museum in Belgium and was amazed by its potential to communicate. It was then that I decided to learn puppeteering. I have opened a puppet theatre and a puppet museum in Bengaluru.
Padma Shri Anupama Hoskere, director, Dhaatu Puppet Theatre, Bengaluru | FP Photo
Puppets from India are exhibited in museums abroad but we are not preserving our own puppets. Puppetry is immortal. It finds mention even in Bhagwat. Puppetry can be a powerful means for communicating with children, introducing them to our sanskars and free them from mobile addiction. Folk tales and folk songs can be told through puppetry. There should be puppet theatres in all state capitals.
-Padma Shri Anupama Hoskere, director, Dhaatu Puppet Theatre, Bengaluru
