Forgotten slingshots regain patronage

Warangal: Selling slingshots, also known as catapult and guler in local parlance, is the profession of this frailly built man in this picture called Vijay, who hails from Buja Buja Nellore near Nellore town in Andhra Pradesh. The forked Y-shaped slingshot is a small hand-powered projectile weapon used to propel small stones.

“Thanks to monkey menace the people facing in Warangal city,” says Vijay, who ekes out a livelihood selling no less than 30 slingshots a day roaming all over the city. At a time when the use of slingshots even by the rural folk is almost a non-entity, having any idea of it is a bit too much to expect from the present day smart phone generation.

Said to be originated from catapults that dominated in warfare during the medieval times, the slingshot hunting has been around for a long. The farming community also used to protect their crop with different kinds of slingshots to shoo away the birds. With monkey menace looming large over the city, the denizens now started to pick up slingshots,

which were popular especially among the children during the 20th century to frighten them. While the children used to play with it, people from many marginalized sections used it to hunt birds. Over the years, the only change the slingshot had witnessed was in it making.

In older days, the slingshots were generally made from a forked tree branch and vulcanized rubber (inner tubes of tyres). Now a sophisticated cable-like elastic rope is used. The growing monkeys’ nuisance in the city has come like a shot in the arm for Vijay and his relatives, who hitherto failed to make both ends meet selling beads and safety pins.

They are now doing a brisk business selling a slingshot each ranging between Rs 20 and Rs 40. Vijay told this newspaper that his two children were pursuing studies in his native village staying in a social welfare hostel.

By:Adepu Mahender