Some textile gems for the collection and a place for liberals to escape to if Trump gets elected

October 13, 2016

Kachchh trip continued

On Monday we started the day with a visit to the home of AA Wazir, an antique textile collector who
specializes in embroidery. His collection includes about 3,000 pieces and about half are for sale. He is older, I assume our age or older. He speaks in a very soft voice so we had to lean close to understand what he was saying. He was very generous with his time and showed us of a number of pieces from different communities/tribes/ ethnic groups. Each group has unique features. Our first purchase was an Andhra Pradesh inhoni, a headgear ring used to carry water or other vessels on the head. It is covered in cowry shells and has a gala (piece to cover the neck and to sway while walking to make an attractive appearance) made of cowry shells. It is about 20 years old.

Next we debated over two gala. One was 60-70 yeas old but the embroidery
wasn’t as fine as the second one. The design of the first piece was more interesting however that that was the deciding factor.  The piece was from the Banjara who are a nomadic community that is from the NW belt of India but they is now spread throughout India.

Our final piece was a chakla from Saurashtra about 25 years old. It is a square piece of embroidery about 20 X 20.

After leaving Wazir’s we headed to another part of town to meet up with Faiz, who was going to show us how bandhani was done. The word bandana comes from bandhani. This is the original tie and dye. We briefly watched men dipping stoles into vats of dye. One part of the stole was encased in some sort of device to protect it was the dye. I have bought several of these where the ends are one color and the center is another. It was interesting to see how that is done. We walked further down the street and met Faiz’s mother who came from the kitchen to give us a demo. She sat on the floor and proceeded to blow us away with this most tedious of tasks. A stainless steel device is placed on her middle or fourth finger and looks like a long finger nail on a ring. She then pokes the fabric from underneath with the metal fingernail, adjusts the fabric with her other hand to get the fabric to have a good tight stretch over the metal fingernail then she proceeded to take a very fine thread that is run through a small tube about two-three inches long. This is so she can grasp the tube and begin to wrap the tiny piece of fabric with the thread which will prevent the dye from coloring the tied part.


There are two photos showing you the end results with very small tied dots and a different style with the larger dots. I see why a small scarf can take one to two months using this technique. Women will sit and do this for 20-30 minutes then need to take a break starting again at a later time. The largest pieces take a year to make.

By now you can imagine we were ’textiled’ out! Ron was incredibly patient with me going from one village to another and with me visiting shops. But I didn’t think we would come here again and this area is the mecca for textiles in our state. Ron did enjoy seeing the various techniques. He loved the hand block printing and rogan painting the most and he truly enjoyed choosing the antique pieces with Wazir.

We had lunch then rested before heading out to the Kachchh museum. It was a two floor museum and took all of thirty minutes to see. Textiles were prominently featured. There were vignettes of tribal scenes with mannequins dressed n ethnic clothing.. Ron noted that each one featured a man sitting smoking a pipe or relaxing in some way and a woman working on a textile such an embroidery. We had dinner and did one final shop that was in the hotel where we had eaten our first night. I found two embroidered cushion covers for a gift and we had another good conversation with the gentleman who runs the shop about the work his group does to preserve the traditional techniques. I would have to say this shop had the finest quality we have seen. Our first visit there I got four small wallet/purses with embroidery.

On Tuesday morning we left at 8:00 and drove home with one coffee stop and one photo stop at the Wild Ass Sanctuary. Ron said if Trump gets elected he has found the place for us liberals to hang out until his presidency collapses. The five hour 20 minute drive of 208 miles took 6.5 hrs. That is due to roads that were torn up in some parts, truck drivers who hang out in the right lane (the passing lane here as they drive on the other side of the street from the US) and cows sometimes being herding and taking up an entire lane. Since cows can get spooked it is best to slow way down when they are on the road which is often. It was a terrific trip and we came back with a greater appreciation for the traditional textiles and a small suitcase of gifts for women friends.

Observations

Every Indian driver I have ridden with pulls the seat all the way up so that their knees almost touch the dash board, making it difficult to get in or out of the car.

Kachchh is quite flat and mostly desert. When the monsoons come the ground has standing water for a while then grass comes up and the nomads move their buffalo and cows to where there is fresh grass. The nomads live in very primitive camps. They milk the cows and hitch a ride to town and sell their milk. Back in the day when it was more difficult to get to town and there was little or no refrigeration, they boiled the milk to condense it to help preserve it. Herdsmen in town and in the country wear white turbans, blousy shirts and dhotis, a length of cloth wrapped around the waist then the back hem is brought up between the legs and tucked into the waist band, making something that sort of looks like pants. Very common in Kachchh.

Kachchh borders Pakistan and Muslims are the majority here. In the 1970’s there was a war between Pakistan and India and many Sindhi ( a caste/community) migrated to India where is was safer.

Women here carry all sorts of stuff on their heads. Their ability to carry incredibly heavy loads like 12 construction size bricks comes to mind, is daunting. While traveling on this trip we were behind a lorry that had stopped to pick up a group of villages and they climbed into the back of this truck. This was not a pick up but a large truck. One woman had a load on her head yet climbed up and into the lorry with the load ever steady on her head.

India has a high tolerance for dirt. I observed that the toll booths’ windows were so dirty you could barely see in or out of them. The same for buses here.

It is not uncommon to see ‘water springs’ along the highway. These springs have a concrete tank so I often see men bathing outside the tank, using a bucket to port water over their heads to get wet and to rinse. They usually bath in their underwear.