Mallika Halder started as a shola artisan from an early age of six to seven as a helping hand to her parents. Mallika’s parents first promoted shola artistry in her native village of Moukhali, West Bengal. They trained the others in their village in Shola cultivation and artistry as it requires a substantial workforce. Mallika’s father worked with the artisans of Kumartuli, Kolkata where he supplied components for Goddess Durga’s ‘daak er saaj’. Mallika helped her parents along with her five siblings. As she grew up, apart from being a hobby, it also became a mean of income to sustain her education. After she was married and moved to her in-laws’ at Sarberia, where she currently resides, she decided to continue her craft. Eventually, she also started her entrepreneurial venture by imparting her knowledge of the craft among other keen housewives of the area. She is immensely glad to have always found her family beside her. She currently manages a workforce of 135 women and makes beautiful decorative and utilitarian items out of shola like flowers, garlands,topor- the traditional headgear of a Bengali groom and the likes.
Shola, a submerged cash crop, popular in the coastal plains of Sundarban and South 24 Parganas of Bengal, is widely used to make decorative items in Bengali weddings, religious ceremonies etc. Shola seeds are sown in marshy lands which are replanted in the monsoon to waterlogged tracts of land. There it takes 2 months to grow to maturity. The stocks are then cut and dried, the outer brown husk removed and the inner white fruit stored for crafting. The branches are used as a fuel. In some cases, the outer dark brown covering is not removed and the items made have a dark border. The shola flowers are then shaped desirably and put together.
Shola is completely bio-degradable, non-allergic and requires little to no maintenance. Mallika confidently assures, “These last as long as you wish to keep it.”