On our 5th day of the trip, we travelled to the home town of
Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore’s Bolpur- Santiniketan, a rich land of
culture and education in West Bengal. There, I got the opportunity to meet some
women of Bolpur, who are associated with selling of a range of sarees from
cotton, silk, Batik and Kantha sarees through a small shop within the premises
of Pancham Bhojanalaya cum Guest house. I bought a cotton saree and some Kantha
work clothes for myself from there. The only Kantha work I had before was a
very pretty salwar kameez in crepe bought from Nalli in Connaught Place, New
Delhi as a part of my wedding preparation, but I’d lost that while shifting
places between Bangalore and Gurgaon couple of years back. So, getting original
Kantha work of Bengal, from one of its districts is no less than a prized
possession for me now.
The same day, I met more women from Birbhum district, who makes
the sarees in various forms… from cotton, cotton-silk, silk, Batik and the
beautiful Kantha Sarees. I was dis-heartened to hear that even though it takes
5 full days for them to complete one Kantha saree, they are paid only Rs. 90
for that one Saree, when we buy it for not less than thousands of rupees. The
only relief is that they have an easier way to make their prepared sarees reach
to the market through a shop right opposite of their workplace called, Amar
Kutir, once a place of refuge for independence movement activists that has been
turned into a cooperative society for the promotion of arts and crafts. It is
located on the banks of the Kopai River, about 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) from
Santiniketan. Finished products of Amar Kutir are also sold through government
cottage emporiums across major Indian cities. There, women working behind those
sarees travel daily for almost an hour on their bi-cycles to reach and go back
from their workplace to their respective homes. I was so proud to see women even
in their old age working hard with their hands to prepare something that makes
other women look better :), true sign of women empowerment and
rich culture of India.
As we had a lot to cover in our 7 days’ vacation to Kolkata, I
was waiting to wear the saree that I’d bought from Bolpur. True to the words, as you seek, so you
get, while waiting for our train to arrive on the railway platform, to return
to Delhi from Kolkata, I met another beautiful mind, Dr. Reshmi Sen Sharma, a
senior professional in clinical psychology. After exchanging few basic
information about ourselves, we could see that we had some common interest
areas, like children education and development, belief in ‘nature and nurture’
and spirituality. It is very rare to find people on a public platform with whom
you can connect so easily and instantly. Then our train journey even became
more enjoyable by talking about our common interest areas, and I was amazed to
hear her work stories, that make her travel extensively, all for a noble cause
to help children and adults with life skill training.
She also helped me in draping the same saree in less than 2 minutes.
Not only I was able to meet some real amazing Indian women in
this maiden trip to Kolkata, but also found a friend in Reshmi. True to its
name, City of Joy, it gave us one of the best memories to cherish in our
journey of Incredible India.
