“My family has been in the craft of pottery for generations. We make these special Clay Pots called ‘Ranjans’ during summer. Ranjans are exclusively crafted in Adilabad district in Telangana which are used for storing water for drinking purposes. It gives a cooling effect to the water just like chilled refrigerated water.

We are solely dependent on this craft and do not have much to do during monsoons. It’s been really hard to survive for the last three years. Our kids, who although are aware of this craft, do not want to practice it for a living. They see us struggling hard every year. We have been working to provide the best of education to them. We only hope something happens but none of it has materialised yet.

I see a lot of people with curious faces. Some of them are politicians and they come here to see how things are going only during the elections. We are no longer amused at their reaction. We do it as a routine. We are dependent on this traditional craft of making Ranjans.

We make it completely by hand and it takes 9-10 hours a day and we need to spend a lot of money on getting the raw materials. I needn’t say how we survive when there’s no favourable weather. Our craft might soon disappear because of the availability of other alternatives in the market, we are afraid, but we don’t have a choice!”