For Fuldi: Art students of GCAC dedicate pandal for model who worked at college for four decades

In and around the art college though, Fuldi needs no introduction. “Model didi!”, a tea seller calls out. She responds with a smile. Now 66, she was 15 when she came here from Murshidabad. She was looking for a job when an acquaintance suggested she model for art students. “I joined as a teenager. For anatomy studies, we were required to pose nude but now in the era of social media you have to be careful. So, for the past five years, I have been posing fully dressed.”

The journey from Murshidabad to a pandal in Kolkata has been long. “When I started, I was too young to understand anything. Gradually, I realised that students were focused on their drawing skills and not me. I started loving my job as the students were full of passion for art,” she says.

Fulkumari Das, a model of art college, since 1974 (Credit: Partha Paul)

Rabi Mondal, a third-year student of the college, says, “She helps us in studying the human body. She has been very patient with us as sketching takes time. Many artists who used Fuldi for their art are big names now.” Among the many she has posed for are Chintamoni Kar, one of India’s foremost modern sculptors, Subrata Gangopadhyay and Ganesh Pyne. “I have never gone to school, I am not literate, but I am happy that I have contributed to their success,” she says. Many of the students have kept in touch with her and helped her out when the Covid pandemic struck, and she had no work.

When Fuldi started work in 1974, she was paid Rs 6 a day and would pose for six to eight hours. Today, she gets Rs 1,000 a day. She makes anything from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 a month, depending on how many days she gets called. Initially, many frowned upon her choice of profession but she persisted. “I don’t care about what people think. They haven’t seen my struggle and are not going to pay my bills. At least I am not doing anything unethical,” says Fuldi who lives in Kolkata with her family.