‘Kral Koor’ tries to revive pottery in Kashmir with Bengaluru touch

SRINAGAR: Saima Shafi is a civil engineer in the PWD of J&K but she is better known as ‘Kral Koor ’, Kashmiri for ‘potter girl’ in the Valley and online. She is doing the task of bringing a centuries-old tradition back to modern Kashmiri kitchens — use of earthen utensils — courtesy, a school in Bengaluru.

The 32-year-old’s journey into pottery was a means to escape depression. She cited a quote by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, ‘ We shape clay into a pot but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.’ “That’s where I decided to store my depression,” she said. Shafi's fascination with clay goes back to her childhood. “I wanted to do something different; since my childhood, I had been fascinated with toys made of clay, so I decided to become a potter," said Shafi, posted in a South Kashmir village.