Petti used by tree climbers can now adorn your walls

Chennai

During his road trips across the state, one common thing that had photographer Amar Ramesh’s attention was tree climbers and their petti. Petti is a strong, handmade storage device made with paalai (fronds), that is taken by the climbers to carry all the tools needed to cut off the coconuts from the treetop. Amar got hold of one petti and was amazed by the way it was made. “There is a lot of thought and innovation that goes into the making of the product. But the plight of the tree climbers does not look lucrative, especially, in tough times like now. Their livelihood has taken a big hit and many are struggling to meet their daily needs. So, I thought of collecting petti’s and sell it through my website (www. kadambavanamfarm.com).

 All the proceeds will be given to the tree climbers across the state,” says Amar Ramesh. The photographer’s idea was to create petti into an art piece and encourage people to honour the Tamil culture. “We buy exotic art pieces from across the world for hefty amounts, when we have a treasure trove of work in our land. It’s high time we applauded our native products. We can use petti as memorabilia in our homes. Today’s children wouldn’t have even heard about this device. After I shared about this initiative on social media, many have come forwarded to buy it,” he adds.

 Seeing Amar’s post, artist Varshini Ramakrishnan got in touch with him and bought two pettis. “It is an exclusive handcrafted accessory authentic to South India, which might see its end shortly due to lack of climbers and the recent dominance of modern tools in this field. It was a great idea by Amar to generate a new source of income for the existing tree climbers and to introduce petti as a collectible for people to buy. I thought of giving the traditional device a small artistic touch by combining modern aesthetics and composition. I hand-painted one petti with bold usage of colours and abstract forms of all things coconut,” says Varshini.