Bengaluru: It was mid 2020 and the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic was peaking globally. Businesses, schools and colleges were closed indefinitely, bringing life across the world to a standstill.
In India, thousands of daily wage workers and university students returned home to their villages and small towns, hoping to be safer with their families.
Stuck at home, without work and without any means to earn, many found themselves staring in the dark.
However, amidst adversity some found opportunity and among them were two sisters from Chandur, a little known village south of Hyderabad.
Hailing from a family of handloom weavers specialising in weaving Pochampalli ikats, a type of handwoven saree, Ashwini and Harini have been familiar with the craft from childhood, but like most youngsters the family tradition never got them interested.
As they grew up, both set their sights on getting educated and finding high-paying jobs in big cities. Ashwini graduated a few years back and had her dream fulfilled when she landed a job with a multi-national company in Hyderabad, while the younger sister just got out of medical college, fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor.
Extraordinary skills of parents
As they found themselves stuck at home during the pandemic, for the first time their eyes opened up to the reality of life at home.
With time in hand and mind less distracted, they could look at their parents’ work more closely, appreciating the extraordinary skills they possessed and the efforts they made for very little gains.
“As children, we generally tend to take our traditions for granted. We have been seeing our parents and grandparents work and create beautiful sarees all our lives. But, we could never appreciate it fully. Suddenly, during the pandemic as we slowed down and took note, we saw the value and the worth of their efforts and skills,” said Ashwini, who now heads the family’s handloom business, with the brand name Chenetha Ikats.
As the pandemic peaked and the orders dried up due to closure of businesses and transport network, the sisters got thinking.
“My father is a master artisan and he managed dozens of looms with the help of weavers, guiding them in design and providing them with regular work. But, in the pandemic there was no way to deliver the pending orders, neither we were getting new orders. So, dozens of families were stuck with no income. That’s when we thought we should intervene,” added Ashwini, who is currently the link between the village and the outer world.
The only link to world
In the times of pandemic, social media was the only link to the outside world for most people. As young girls both the siblings were well-versed with the Internet. Both the tech-savvy engineer Ashwini and her sister Dr. Harini took a plunge.
“We decided to create a page on Instagram and shared some snaps regularly. As we did this consistently, we started getting inquiries and slowly we got into business. This not only helped us sustain our business during the pandemic, but also helped several families who were depending on our orders for work,” said Dr. Harini, who is currently working as a medical intern, while preparing for her post graduation, even as she creates new irate designs.
However, their efforts couldn’t save the interests of all the weavers of the town. Many weavers who couldn’t find work, pulled the shutter down and went to the big cities in search of work.
“Our dream is to bring back all the weavers who have gone away. We want to find regular work for all our weavers and empower them. We will consider ourselves successful only when we are able to revive all the looms in the town. We have realised that if we market well there is enough demand for the product. We are getting orders from across the world now. There is no intermediary, which means the weavers get paid better,” added Dr. Harini.
Together, Ashwini and Dr. Harini have become a force of revival and the whole town is proud of their expertise and efforts. More than anyone else, the happiest people in the town are their parents Shobha and Bixamaiah Cherupally.
“My daughters are like my two eyes. I am really proud of what they have achieved, not just in terms of education, but importantly, thinking about the village and putting us back in business when we needed it most,” said Shobha, who is also a master artisan.
New techniques
With the business in the upswing, Ashwini has quit her software job to focus on developing the craft further. The two sisters not only handle business and promotion, but are also creating new designs and modernising the craft with new techniques.
Chandur is a small town an hour’s drive from Hyderabad. Located in the Nalgonda district, in the southern state of Telangana, the town is part of a world renowned handloom cluster of about 80 villages and small towns, producing Pochampalli Ikat.
Pochamalli Ikkat is among the most popular varieties of sarees in India, with many celebrity designers now offering their patronage to the craft. It is woven using a unique design technique, where the yarn is dyed prior to weaving.
In Ikat, dyeing is done by binding individual yarns or bundles of yarns in knots, applying desired patterns. The patterns are first drawn on graph papers and then replicated on the yarn.
Producing an Ikat is a meticulous job, involving a series of carefully crafted steps spread across two weeks. From bleaching and stretching to tying and dyeing as well as warping and wefting, every saree is a work of art involving several hands.
Every Ikat not only tells a story of skills and passion, but also narrates tales of a legacy evolved over centuries. Hence, its revival is not just the revival of a craft, but the resurgence of a tradition etched in time.
-- Shafaat Shahbandari is a freelance journalist and founder-editor of Thousand Shades of India
