Weaver's village

B'ful Gulmohar trees in the city

After a few trips in various Weaver’s villages in Orissa, my next destination was ‘Badabag’ village in Jagatsinghpur. Rented a cab and pinx and me were off to yet another beautiful village of Odisha (India)

8.15 am: Started from Bhubaneswar

9.00 am: Cuttack

9.40 am: Karkatpur

I love villages; it brings back many good memories to me. The good smelling earth, the fresh air, open fields and sleeping in the open. There is something superb about food being cooked on the chulah (open mud stove) hmmm :)

10.25 am: Reached Jagatsinghpur (Badabag Village)

Beautiful old style wood engravings

Nasty roads on the way

Talking, sleeping and partially enjoying the view outside the window we reached the village. We were here majorly because of my sister’s work and then a little for me to photograph that I was very eager of. There was an old weavers society established that we had to visit. One old man welcomed us and we got seated. She discussed and saw fabrics what was related to her Textile work. I observed and clicked few snaps. The place seemed dark kind of with old traditional style of almirah’s and door carvings. 

The textiles are all of very beautiful colors. See! Aren't they! These are such beautiful and pretty colors from earthen to bright fabrics. I choose few for my craft work and few to make my Dupatta ;) (She bought a good amount of all of those)

|

|

v

Few Sarees in Basic colors

The beautiful wall paintings done by powdered rice water

11.20 am: It was getting sunnier and we went out to roam the village. It now had cement roads, some semi cement-brick homes, some completely cement homes. Few were mud ones and few mud and bricks. After the super cyclone the villagers have very strictly made their homes from cement to be safe. Good step indeed. But then the traditions aren’t lost. Same small pathways, greenery, ponds in between, kids playing in the open, women and men together working, cows and calves tied around, and one scene I always see in a village and that is parakeets in a cages. :/

Sis talked to the villagers and we visited few weavers home. There were looms set inside their homes or else in their front yard where there is sufficient light to work. Visiting, meeting, talking of work went on. In between the kids all followed and played around us in addition to getting photographed. :D We enjoyed with them too :)

In a weavers home the man and the women equally contribute to this beautiful worked textile. In fact generation by generation it’s inherited and transferred and families help in their work and business flow. There are lots of tasks involved like dyeing the material, drying, arranging the wraps and wefts and weaving…quite difficult for one man to handle! 

My sister Pankaja with the weavers

The rest of the tour continued with the scenic views and interacting with the village people and the surrounding nature. Villages are beautiful and sustainable in their own. There is nothing like people are poor here or not happy. They just have a different way of living and happy in their own way. But yes there are necessities like schooling and medical aids that might be difficult to seek.  

12.30pm: After an hour we backed to the office. They were all into conversation while the fabrics we selected were packed to be taken home and so we started our journey back.

It rained on our way back and the weather got very pleasing and comforting.

By 1.00 pm we were home (Bhubaneswar)

Few snapshots of the journey:

|
|
|
v

Colored Yarn

The Hand-loom

The ready to use dyed threads

The beautiful saree

The half spun stole- I particularly loved this one

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Me !