Poetry on a six yards long paper

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that next to Diamonds, Silks are a girl’s best friend. Hailing from the holy land of Kashi or Varanasi or Banaras as popularly known, I have my fair share of Banarasi silk sarees as Collectibles, which I find an excuse to show off in front of guests every now and then.  I become the Gollum of the ‘precious’ six yards of fabrics.

I wonder many times why I crave my sister’s homemade cake better than a fancy BlackForest. I still have my old woolen poncho in Blue-pink stripes, that my Mother knit for my 18^th birthday and wear it year after year. The ones I bought have already seen their days. And when it comes to Banarasi sarees, handloom is not just an option; it’s the only option that I go for.

There is something in the touch of the maker, the labor done in the making, and the experience that guides and alters the creation, which brings about the inexplicable aura of preciousness around that Cake, that poncho and that Banarasi that covers everything else by a haze.

Handloom weaving is an ancient tradition that is still practiced on a large scale. It was one of the uniting factors among the Muslim weavers, the Gujarati weavers and merchants, the Bangla weavers. Together they took this art to faraway places.

Lately, though, due to the tough competition from cheaper Chinese textile, emergence of Power looms as a quicker mode of production, Banarasi weavers are living on the edge of existence. The exploitative middle men do not give the weavers their fair share for the effort they put in(Did you know, that it takes 2-6 months for making one traditional banarasi handloom saree, which is class apart from any of the machine made ones ?) . Cheaper Chinese goods have choked the demand of authentic handloom product. The old weavers do not know anything else so they continue to weave but they definitely do not want their children to continue their legacy.

Will this art die a slow death or can we do something about it? My appeal to all saree lovers is that, the next time when you buy silk, buy an authentic handloom product, be it Banarasi or Kanjivaram and do your bit to keep this tradition alive.