Ratnottama Sengupta
Last year in March I was in Satkhira, a small village in the Khulna district of Bangladesh just across the check post at Bhomra. For those who revel in saris, a mere mention of Bangladesh spells visions of Dhaka's Jamdani. But I was on the sets of Sankhochil, an Indo-Bangla co-production featuring Prosenjit. The river Ichhamati dividing two Bengals, boats, border guards, patriotic songs, school kids, crowds, takes, retakes, more takes... After three days I was ready for a break. And what do I find? The only things one can shop in the local market are lungi, gamchha, and a few power loom saris. Forget Jamdanis, even handlooms from Tangail and Dhanekhali have become a rarity!
But I wasn't crestfallen: I shopped gamchhas and lungis. And they made handsome gifts when redesigned as choli-type blouses, dupattas, scarfs, headgears... Yes, headgears with saris as much as Ts-n-jeans - after all, Kolkata's dancer-turned-jail reformist Alokananda Roy has made this bohemian touch her signature attire! Now even lungis can be redesigned as kurtis and tops...
In that brief hour I realised so much imagination is going into the tradition that offers Bangladesh these textiles of everyday use. The vibrant red-yellow-green-blue checks and stripes now come in hitherto unseen widths and all manners of thread-counts. Gamchha, once a coarse cotton towel for wiping off sweat or drying after bath, is still ubiquitous. But it has come alive to Bibi Russel's style statement and itching to walk the ramp internationally as fashionwear and accessories too. Just imagine what that could mean to the humble tantis at the grassroots in Bengal, Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam, and Tripura!
This last thought crossed my mind as I trailed the mud roads in Phulia and Santipur this summer with Jaya Jaitly, the founder of Dastkaari movement. The tropical Purvanchal' has been the home of gamchhas: given the hot and humid clime of the region, they've traditionally served as bath towels, napkins, protection from a scorching sun, a token of honour in place of a shawl, a waistcloth for the tribal kids until they came of age and draped lungis or saris, and even to bundle buys from the bazaar. That's why, in those days, weavers debuted on small looms churning out lengths of multihued washcloths.
Yes, lifestyles have changed and looms powered by machines are cutting into the not merely the skill of the craftsmen. Today when cheap Chinese cloth and T-s from here-n-there rule the world, gamchha is under siege. "But put a finer yarn on the sari loom and there's no end to the use you can put it to," Jaitly points out. For, "the thickness of the cloth depends on the count of the yarn; its width, on the loom, and the colours on the designer." It's time for the gamchha, then, to be reborn as a runner or napkin, bandana or prayer mat, uttariya or jhola, gift bag or curtain, Ts or two-piece bathing suits, hairbands and clutch purse... I myself flaunt Assam's embroidered gamchhas as blouses. "Soft as silk counts can create scarfs that even foreigners can use," Jaitly asserts.
"Oh, the possibilities of the unstitched cloth are limitless!" exclaims Australian textile artist Maggie Baxter who just launched Unfolding, documenting her work with tie-n-dye and block artisans. More so with the gamchha, I realise, for we can take the basic cotton textile and put it to countless use. Why, when last week my kids returned from Istanbul with a Turkish towel for their grandma, she decided it'll be her new stole. "Such wider applications open worlds for fashionistas, and secure the working class now being thrown off their feet by the cheap Chinese stuff sweeping our gullies and chowrastas," Jaitly points out. Power loom hasn't cut into the handloom base of gamchha - people ignore it because it is lowly. "Class elitism makes us admire and use only 'high class' textile," she knows.
This is where Bibi Russell becomes an example. When the London-trained designer and Vogue model returned to Dhaka, gamchha was transcreated into an international fashion statement that the UN seized upon as a blueprint for development. Today, her creations are the rage of upper crust Indians. Moonmoon Sen, actor-MP, sports Bibi's individuality as hairbands; designers Dev, Nil and Kallol showcase her scarfs and jackets.
If Bibi could see beyond the poverty symbolised by gamchha then entrepreneurs in Bhagalpur, Guwahati, Cuttack and Kolkata using khadi cotton, ahimsa silk and recycled yardage could reinvent this aam aadmi's attire and advertise it online for Afghanistan, Emirates, Indonesia and beyond...
Let's flaunt that.