The Living and Learning Design Center and Srujan Trust

 

This post was first published in a saree group on Sunday October 30th.

It turned out to be yet another glorious day in Kutchh on Saturday. Juned picked us from our hotel around 9:30 am and laid out the day’s plan. 

First stop was LLDC! The Crafts Museum!

The story of this museum goes back to late 1960s when Kutchh faced a terrible drought. Villages were severely affected. Water and food shortages threatened survival of thousands of rural residents. An industrialist family based in Mumbai, the Shroffs, who hailed from Kutchh,wanted to do whatever they could to help their people. They came down to assess the needs and offered relief packages to the badly affected areas. In the village of Dhaneti the women refused to accept these packages. Instead they asked for work. Chandaben Shroff observed that all these women were very skilled in various kinds of embroidery. She decided to experiment with this strength of the local women. 

30 women enrolled in the maiden project where each one was given a saree to embroider in their unique style. These exquisitely embroidered sarees were then sent to an exhibition in Mumbai and received an overwhelming response. Everything sold out.Chandaben realized the potential of these women and devoted her life to making it a viable option to earn livelihood for them. After 50 years the Srujan Trust founded by Chandaben has 4000 women artisans participating in its projects.

The Trust went on to get a huge acreage of farm land in Ajrakhpur to build the Living and Learning Design Center. Juned’s father Dr Ismail Mohd Khatri was instrumental in getting them this land. The museum is built with international standards and has to be seen in person to believe in the monumental scope of art in Kutchh. Over 10 different communities from Kutchh, each with their unique style of embroidery, are showcased in the exhibits. In addition there is representation of other arts like pottery, leather work, metal work, wood carvings, block printing( Ajrakh), tie and dye( bandhani) and Bhujodi weaving. We watched a documentary in the museum’s auditorium before walking through its 3 spellbinding galleries. While photos were prohibited in gallery 1, they were allowed in the next two. Such is the vastness of the heritage of embroidery that to this date the researchers continue to discover patterns and stitches that were previously not known to them. They are on an ongoing lookout for “ grandmothers” in the community who have lived with generational skills and thus can be a valuable resource to pass it on to future generations so that the art thrives.  Everyone we met at the museum had one common trait and that was humility! Humility to acknowledge that “ we are still learning” ! The art is bigger than us humans! 

Awestruck with the experience at LLDC we proceeded to see one of Juned’s farms. The road passed through farmland. There were vegetables growing at some places, lots of castor plantations and lo and behold cotton farms ready for harvest, just like I had recently seen in Bakersfield, California. How I longed to see the actual harvesting in India! 

 On his farm Juned had some buffaloes and goats as well as some vegetables and castor plantings. There were mango trees, coconut trees, date palms. One goat had delivered twin babies just the day before. I was able to hold one in my arms. They were just so adorable. 

There was a small settlement of a jath family on his premises. The people were shy and it took a bit of convincing for them to allow taking pictures. The lady was wearing traditional garments and jewelry as she carried her chores around the huts built from dried grass. One hut had the kitchen. Another had clothing. A third was for sleeping. A young baby was sleeping under covers in a cradle under a thatch. A teenage boy was moving around the huts and around his mother. He seemed very curious yet very shy to come talk to us. Some traditional clothing was drying on the ropes outside. This visit to the farm was such a beautiful experience ! Got to see their living arrangements as it is. As natural as it can get! It was priceless. 

From there we went to Juned’s workshop and studio. He has the work ongoing at 2-3 locations. We got to see firsthand how the different dyes( indigo, black, red) are prepared and stored, how the block printing and dyeing is done in sequence with boiling, washing and drying out in the open. 

I got one more opportunity to talk to Juned’s father, Dr Ismail. Each time I interacted with him I had to pinch myself….this is really happening! I am speaking to the master craftsman of the century in person ! It will remain one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

We took a break for lunch at their home. Juned’s mother had cooked bajra bhakri, squash curry, dal, rice and dahi wadas. Home made butter, buttermilk and ghee to soak jaggery were staple sides.  We sat in their courtyard around a cot that had the lunch spread. Juned’s cute 14 year old son Naeem helped serve the lunch. 

After lunch we went over to see the workshop of another Ajrakh artisan Irfan Khatri who also I’ve known for over 5-6 years now. He was the one who had transformed one of my plain Vidarbha karvati Kinar sarees to an Ajrakh saree. 

Irfan and Juned are competitors in their business. But the brotherhood that exists between them was simply heartwarming to see. I am their common customer. They did not bring any awkwardness in the interaction. Each maintained a dignified silence as I shopped with the other. Not just that, later Juned took Irfan with us on our trip to Mandvi which is about 60km from Ajrakhpur. Naeem( Juned’s oldest son) also accompanied us on this trip. 

We passed through Bhuj on way to Mandvi. This is the biggest city in Kutchh. Has a big hospital, an airport and many other facilities that the surrounding towns can avail of. 

Once out of Bhuj we again passed through rural farmland. There were castor farms predominantly and some cotton fields. Suddenly I spotted some activity in one of the cotton fields on the opposite side of the road! People were picking cotton ! Juned knew this was what I had so desperately wanted to see. He stopped the car by the roadside. We crossed the busy road to see the action in the field. He shouted to the men asking for their permission to take pictures. They happily consented. You can’t imagine my joy! In stark contrast to the mechanized harvesting of cotton in the USA that I documented just a couple of weeks back, here about 10-12 workers( both men and women) were picking cotton with their hands and filling it into large sacks. They waved to us happily before resuming their work. And after that quick but delightful stop we were back on the road to Mandvi. 

The sun was leaning lower and lower on the western horizon. Juned tried hard to speed but the traffic would only allow so much. Alas! It was 6 o’ clock when we made it to the gates of Vijay Vilas palace and the guard told us they were closed for the day! We turned back and headed to the beach instead. The road was totally packed with cars and it was an ordeal to move. The sun had already set by then. Juned asked us to get down and proceed to the beach while he looked for parking. It was a huge crowd at the beach. The ongoing Diwali holidays plus weekend had drawn big crowds. There were ATVs, camels, horses offering rides to visitors. Lots of food stalls lining the beach. In the distance I could see speed boats and jet skis in the waters. A crescent moon was seen in the western sky surrounded by beautiful colors post sunset. We watched the scene standing in the white sand on the beach. It would have been nicer if there wasn’t as much crowd but it was still a beautiful experience. 

By the time it was dark and time to go back Juned was still stuck in the traffic and had not found parking. We walked to his car and joined him in the struggle to get back on the main road. His demeanor throughout this frustrating situation of traffic jam was a lesson for many to learn. Cars were coming out from parking from all directions and trying to make their way. Noone was able to make headway. Tempers were flying high. Juned started laughing listening to the fighting outside. He said people are talking in 5 different dialects of Gujarati and not one is making sense 😄!

I asked him “ don’t you ever get angry?”. He laughed and said “ gussa dimag ko kha jata hai”( anger consumes the brain). Such a wise man this dear friend of mine is !

Finally after a lot of patient waiting we were back on the road. After a quick stop for dinner in Bhuj Juned dropped us to the hotel just before 11 pm. 

What a memorable day it had been!

Saree is another specialty weave from Kutchh called Tangaliya weave. This one is on Kala cotton( black organic cotton) that is native to this region. More about this weave another time. I was in touch with its weaver Haresh Vankar over the phone but could not visit him and see his work in action during this trip due to being short on time. Another visit is definitely needed.