Dear Friends,

September is a special month for three reasons 

a)  Nativity of our Blessed Virgin Mary – when we celebrate the birthday of our Universal Mother. In the traditional way, we Mangaloreans honour her by singing the nostalgic song of   “Sakkad sangatha melya” and the throwing of flowers as a token of our love and affection for her.

b) Harvest festival – the time for reaping, the time of harvest – when the farmers in the ffields rejoice over the bounty.  With the corn that is blessed during the Mass, the family all come together to join in the family meal – a sign of one ness a sign of Unity a sign of strength. United we Stand and Divided we Fall is the motto – and we have to unite together as one caste, one creed, one nation crossing all barriers.

c) Teacher’s Day – Remembering those special people in  our lives who have made and moulded our careers with their guidance and patience. Every teacher in this world has a special role to  play in the lives of their students –
And it with gratitude that we can repay all our teachers with our love, our prayers and good wishes for them..

In this bulletin of Women Vision, we have an exceptionally artistic and talented lady from  Mangalore who definitely would not need much of an introduction. Talk of pottery and talk of the beautiful terracotta items that is produced in Mangalore and the name of Merlin Rasquinha would ring a bell in your mind.

Merlin married Arthur Rasquinha (s/o late Simon Rasquinha of Angelore). Due to her  inherent passion for art and  craft she immediately decided to be in tune with her husband’s line of  business  the famous statue making factory of Mangalore – SIMON & Co.  and decided to learn the craft of statue making. Painting is another  passion of hers. Having graduated from Shri J. J. School of Art in Bombay, there was not much scope for commercial artists in Mangalore and hence Merlin decide try her  hand at clay pottery

She took training at Regional Design ad Technical Development Centre at Bangalore and gave 1 year apprenticeship Training for 30 girls sponsored by Govt. of India. She has been instrumental in training handicapped girls from Cheshire Home and this craft helps them to earn their daily bread. She now gives free training to poor girls who are at home and cannot afford to go to school or college and provides them both free tools and material and they work at home in their spare time. Even mentally  retarded and alcoholics are working for her and it is a joy for her to be able  to rehabilitate so many through herclay craft. The popularity of her work and exhibitions can be gauged from the numerous write-ups she get after each one of her exhibitions in reputed national dailies and magazines like The Times Of India and Femina

What is manufactured  at her factory is sold at the exhibitions all over the country sponsored by the handicraft center of India. She has attended more than 40 exhibitions all over India and this has  given her a lot of opportunity to learn difficult traditional designs and simple methods of making this craft, including making terracotta jewellery   which is appreciated & bought by many young girls and foreigners

Says Merlin “My hard work and interests have given me full satisfaction in this craft. That keeps me busy and happy:.  
            
A down to earth person, perhaps because she spends so much time creating master pieces out of good old earth, her attitude towards life and the crafts she produces is different from that of most business minde