Tuesday, December 31, 2019

The Lone String Puppeteer

It is important to balance your routine to bring about a balance in life.

But there is someone in India who can balance the ancient characters from epics on her upper lip.
She's the only girl in the world who can do it.
Hence, She's called the Lone String Puppeteer.

Rinjini, who lives in a village called Monipally in Kerala.


If she had not learned this puppetry this art of ancient India would have been lost to time.
15-year-old Rajini balances these wooden String puppets between her nose and upper lip. This art form is known as "nokuvidya pavakalli".

In Malayalam 'noku' means vision and 'vidya' stands for technique. In this, the artist balances the string puppets between the nose and the upper lip and while holding them insight controls the puppets with the strings.
The puppets that are hard to control with one's hands are easily balanced by Rinjiini on her lips. Through her acts, she performs ten different acts from the 'Ramayana' and the 'Mahabharata'.

There are two other important members with her during the performance. A drummer and a singer who sings the epic.

Actually, Rinjini got interested in this art form after watching her grandmother Pankajakshi.


The art that was performed by the family of Pankajakshi had only Rinjini to carry it forward. Once Pankajakshi's health deteriorated she entrusted this art form to Rinjini.
Earlier Rinjini was not ready for this art form but to keep this art form alive government help and some foreign tours encouraged Rinjini. Today she is carrying this family legacy of hers forward on her own.
WOW! I SALUTE YOU, RINJINI!

Rinjini's grandfather made these puppets 30 years ago and Rinjini's brother takes care of them.




"Nokuvidya pavakalli" is an art form that would have been lost to time if had Rinjini not learned it. But by learning this difficult skill this lone puppeteer from monipally has not only carried forward her family legacy but also saved an important art of India on her own.
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