Army tank in Jandiala, Punjab. This water tank stores 3000 litres of water.

Tractor in Bada Pind, near Phillaur

(*this also features on Sonu's office wall. See below)


All this research led me to Ram Lobhaya's office in Jandiala (near Phagwara) This is from where he and his son, Sonu have run an enterprising business for 15 years. They have built made-to-order tanks for people all over Punjab, and have fulfilled orders as far as Haryana and UP. Having taken over all of Punjab, they are hoping to take their business overseas to Canada, the US and the UK where wealthy Punjabi NRIs have settled. 

The tyres you see in front of the office belonged to an aeroplane, an unfortunate bus accident destroyed the plane leaving the tyres on both plinths.

Despite the high number of aeroplanes I have seen in these past few days, Ram assures me that the aeroplane is an outdated design. Nowadays people want something more unusual. This could be a 'kabaddi' team of 3 or 4 players or a game of 'tug of war' played by 10 participants, complete with a referee.

A father who is very proud of his athlete son had this one especially made as a gift. It was worked upon from several photos that were provided. 

Ram Lobhaya and his son, Sonu in their workshop.

Dr. Ambedkar with local village lady

If you would like to get a water tank built or a sculpture, get  in touch with them on 98150-35719 or 01826-274380

There are several competitors in the area and although, Sonu Arts remains the oldest and is highly recommended, they only make water tanks to order and one cannot go and buy one off the shelf.

Parsoram, down the road stocks a aeroplanes, eagles and athletes and also makes customized tanks but not quite as elaborate as Sonu's.

Farmers ploughing the field near Goraya

Happy elephant neighbours for the lady in green at Happy Home, Phagwara

 Aeroplanes are very popular. These ones are near Mansoorwal and Khandoor.

As are other modes of transport -Buses, Cars. I'd love to find a motor bike or a train engine.

 

Car with steering wheel, pipes and number plate, without headlights!

There are also many Pehlwans (wrestlers). This one wearing the India vest is a favourite! 

 

Guru Gobind Singhji, the 10th guru of the Sikhs was always accompanied by his eagle and his horse, the eagle perched on one hand and the horses' reins in the other.  

I found an interesting article about these tanks on The Sikh Foundation website. 

Spotted these fantastically kitsch 'water tanks' on the roof of a dhaba (restaurant on the highway) between Ludhiana and Jalandhar in the summer of 2010. I loved them so much, I went back one morning at 6am to Phagwara to find some more. There was a dust storm that morning, which made it fairly difficult to photograph them but here they are. This will be an ongoing series and I hope to find all the footballs, eagles and Eiffel Towers in Ludhiana (to begin with).

(I especially like the Pehlwan with the tavees on his arm)

This is the first Air India plane I spotted (many others followed). Ironically, it was the day after the Air India Express plane from Dubai to Mangalore overshot the runway and crashed, resulting in 159 deaths.

 Air India at the Lally Farm Residence

This one also has the AI logo on it's tail. 

Watch this space for more interesting water tanks from Ludhiana!

I have been getting die cut sign plates made from Hari Singh & Co. for a while now. Mr. Sukhwinder Singh (Hari's son) runs this business in the industrial area in Ludhiana. Along with number plates for vehicles, they also specialize in lazer cut vinyl signs for shop windows, hospitals, car windows, etc.

                                                     

Sukhwinder was very kind to let me see the whole process of how they make these plates.
They are made of aluminium mirrored on either side with plastic in the centre. The very first step is choosing the base colour in radium vinyl and preparing these plates to be die cut.

  

 

The tools necessary for this are the plates, the vinyl stickers, a very sharp scalpel (or a surgical blade - this is what they use), a water spray gun and a small squeegee. 

Dayaram, who has been working here for a few years gave me a demonstration. Once the base is ready, the numbers or alphabets are embossed on the plates with die cut moulds. There are boxes of different font moulds, a negative and positive for each letter.


The machine used to emboss the letters.


The negative and positive parts of the mould.

Below is a video demonstrating how the die cut machine is used to emboss the plates.

The vinyl from the embossed letters is cut off to expose the silver (mirrored aluminium). This can be left as is or a different colour vinyl can be cut to go on top of the embossed surface.

Watch this space for more sign plates! 

You can get yours custom-made (text/colour/size), email me at kanganarora@gmail.com for more information.