This Coimbatore carpenter handcrafts wooden clubbells, known as ‘karlakattai’

Coimbatore’s karlakattai maker

Carpenter A Arumugam has sectioned a small room in his tile-roofed house in Kavundampalayam to display his precious karlakattai. They stand gleaming with a coat of varnish in various shades of brown on racks. Outside, at his workshop that has just enough space for one person to work, is the wood turning lathe, the tool that carves blocks of wood into smooth cylinders. The 72-year-old, who is from Cherpulassery in Kerala, has 40 years of experience in carpentry. An expert at intricate wood work, he has now given it all up to make the rather plain wooden clubbells. “This was a conscious decision,” he chuckles, adding that the karlakattai is his bread and butter now.

“I started focussing on karlakattai after the pandemic struck,” he says, adding that he made a range of tables, cots, chairs, and wardrobes in his younger years. “But I have always worked for someone,” he remarks. When the pandemic struck, he was left with no orders, and as a result, no income. “That is when I decided to try my hand at karlakattai,” he says.

It was not something he had never done before. “I remember making a few in 1982 for a customer,” he says. For this workout implement, he realised he didn’t require anything else but wood and the lathe he owned. “I didn’t need nuts, nails, not even a hammer,” he says. A new business idea was born, and Arumugam made a few, tied them to his bike and took them to be displayed on Race Course Road.

“I sold a few every day,” he recalls, adding that he got busy making four pieces a day. Today though, he sells based on word of mouth, and most orders come over phone. “But there is good demand,” says Arumugam. The craftsman sources neem and vaagai wood locally, and makes club bells weighing two kilograms to five kilograms, and gets the occasional order to make those as heavy as 10 to 16 kilograms. Prices range from ₹850 to ₹4000, depending on weight.

Arumugam is said to be the only karkalattai maker in the city, and takes pride is making something that will help keep the user fit. “I wish my customers good health when they receive their karla from me,” he says. “I also ask them that they use it every day without compromise.”

In all his years as a carpenter, Arumugam will never forget the ‘Bombay chairs’ he made for hairdressers. “They cost over ₹35,000. On the day of delivery, the customer would offer fruits on a platter along with the money to my employer, and receive the chair with reverence,” he recalls. “This is because this chair will last them a lifetime, and is the most defining aspect of their career.”

He is now happy that his customers receive the karlakattai the same way. On a table inside his home, stands the first karlakattai he made, into which he has carved the form of goddess Meenakshi. At its feet, are flowers. Truly, for Arumugam, karlakattai is the god he worships.