Dey make it look so easy...but by no means easy at all. Pullin' it here, cutting it dis length, tying it down...an den in de end a beautiful structure emerges. Yes, an art indeed, bamboo bending.
After ten hours of labouring in the hot sun (and some rain) last Saturday, a masterpiece was revealed with magnificent structures of bamboo bent in different, unique designs, just waiting for the thousands of deyas to be placed on them for the Prices Supermarket and El Dorado Shiv Mandir Divali community celebration.
They, a team of seven men, made it look so easy. However, as I reflected on the day's work, it was far from an easy task. The team was lead by Boodram "Gable" Bissoondial, along side his co-captain, Kungebeharry "KB" Samlal.
Those two men commenced about 7 am on October 23, determined to finish the bamboo bending works, even if it meant just by the two of them. As luck would have it, however, Brandon and Dexter joined about 10 am, and just after lunch Harkoo, Subash, and Boodoo added to the team.
What are some of the most important things to consider in bamboo bending? Well, captain Gable told me one of the first things was to start with the end in mind. Meaning, visualise what you want the finished product to look like in the end, and, of course, communicate that to the workers.
That point turned out to be a vital one, as I saw during the course of the day, as other team members joined, they wanted to change and add this or take this out. But Gable, having done bamboo bending for many, many years, nicely communicated his grand master bamboo-bending plan to keep the team focused on the job at hand.
He later said jokingly, if he had not done that well, we may have still been splitting bamboo today.Speaking of splitting bamboo, Gable said there was another factor to be considered in bamboo bending–choosing your bamboo carefully. Now that point caught my attention. I thought a bamboo was a bamboo and you just split it. But I was so wrong.
For "road way" bamboo designs (bamboo lengths running parallel to each other placed on short stubs), Gable noted that you needed to choose long lengths of bamboo that were not very wide in width.
He said, however, for bamboo that would form "rose designs," you needed to consider width more than length, since you had to split that type of bamboo into eight pieces.
I also found out that safety was another important factor to consider in bamboo bending. I always wondered how the split bamboo was held in place. Again, Gable explained to me, that holding the bamboo pieces together was what brought the art in place.
He said there was no need for fancy-fancy tools, just the need for rolls of wire and two-and-a-half inch nails, with hammer in hand.
The pieces of bamboo must be tacked down to ensure they didn't fall out causing harm to anyone, and also the edges of the bamboo had to be shaved so that no one could be pricked by edges.
In explaining his final point on the art of bamboo bending, Gable proudly said team work was a critical ingredient. He admitted he was a bit worried when he saw that only KB had turned out in the morning to assist him. Not that he was not confident that KB wasn't a good worker, but he said in bamboo bending you needed a team of people.
For splitting the bamboo in two or eight pieces, you needed a minimum of two to four people sometimes. Of course, this was because of the use of hammer technology. Gable said a power saw could have been considered to reduce the manpower, but not at the risk of "mashing up the bamboo."
So, with the hammer in hand and another person hitting it down the side of the bamboo, two other men were needed to constantly hold the split parts aside for the splitting process to proceed a bit faster.
While the bamboo was being split, another person had to dig the holes in the ground, while another was needed to cut the wire and organise the nails to hold the framework in place.So after ten hours in the sun, and rain, with Gable and team, my whole view of bamboo bending changed completely. Yes, I stayed in the sun, and rain, with them.
Hey, as president of the temple, I am hand in hand with my team, sun or rain. An easy task, nay! In fact, it was an art requiring great skill!