2/20/12
I had a great
conversation with Shishir who I met on the flight from Delhi to Varanasi. He
was raised in a rural community close to Varanasi. He was returning from his
home in Bangalore for the first time in 32 years to attend the dedication of a
now rebuilt temple that his grandfather had first built and which had fallen into
disrepair before the family decided to restore it. His wife is a flight
coordinator with Kingfisher, which may account for his first class seat. My
first class upgrade is inexplicable except for God’s grace that has attended me
from the very beginning of this trip. A Kingfisher representative spirited me
to the front of the line and till I got on the plane I had no idea I was in
first class – wonderful service on a 1hr15min flight, including watermelon
juice before take off, a wonderful vegetarian lunch (there were three choices
for lunch) finished off with rich chocolate cake (those who know me well will
smile). Shishir ordered Western style, I the Indian style menu choice – I smiled at that. He spoke about the Varanasi of the visitor and the Varanasi of the local
community as being like two separate worlds that barely touch. The travel agent
Nandu Mishra put me up in his brother Gautam Mishra’s Varanasi Home Stay Hotel
in which there will eventually be four guest rooms (two at present) and on the
top floor his family home. This is a scheme that the Government of India is encouraging
to expand small home based business. Part of the idea is that the visitor will
experience some sense of the intimacy of family life in India. As it happens Gautam’s
project is only partly finished and his family have not yet moved in. He
promises me that when I return his wife will welcome me. In her stead he marked
my forehead with the red dot and rice dot as an expression of welcome. Gupta
International is the umbrella name for the hotel network and for the Silk
Weaving Factory to which I was (of course) taken to survey the work and hopefully
make purchases. I met Ahmed whose
grandfather established the factory about fifty years ago and his father and now
he run it. From simply being concerned with production they now take the
products all the way to shipping around the world directly. In that regard it
reminds me of the Kandi (?) family business in Bethlehem which I visited in 2007. Ahmed’s company has 1200 weavers and looms working in their homes all
over Varanasi and the surrounding area who receive the pattern and the thread
from him and produce the cloth for saris and for scarfs etc. I personally
witnessed the production process that now includes cleaning the copper wire, thinning it down to a very fine wire, electroplating the copper with silver, twining the silvered copper with silk to
make a metallic thread. The coloring of the silk in dyes that remain fast
colored to the thread. The designs that include varying degrees of metallic
thread with other silk colors is what makes the Varanasi production unique and
distinctive in all of India. The one pedal loom that works for single colored
patterns even ones that include metallic thread, the four pedal looks that
operate on a punchcard system of design with one hole representing the graphed
design on the wall in front of the weaver. Weaving is a painstaking process
requiring great concentration and each weaver can only work for 15 to 20
minutes before taking a break.Multi-colored patterns proceed by 1.5 inches per
day on the loom, single colored by 1 yard per day. Some saris can take six days
to produce, some can take six months.
[As I write I
cannot escape (as if I wanted to J) the sound of repeated refrains in
praise of Shiva and the occasional honking of horns – the former particular to
this place and day, the latter totally synonymous with the whole country. The
horn in a car is the most essential and most used instrument available to the
driver – used frequently and at least three times as often as the gear shift in
heavy traffic! Of course India is left-hand drive like the UK so I feel very at
home in that regard.]
Back to
weaving. There is a special kind of traditional weaving of silk that is
becoming a fast forgotten and lost art. Among tens of thousands of silk weavers
in Varanasi there is left only one family whose members and growing old who
know how to weave by this ancient method. Three weavers sit opposite three others
on the other side of the loom. By hand controlled manipulation of the threads
on the back side of the loom, according to the pattern, the weavers on the
other side proceed to do the weaving. Efforts are being made to accelerate the
teaching of this method to a the new generation of weavers but the skill is so
sophisticated that no one seems able to acquire the skill. The items that are
in production now may be museum items within a few decades.
Now getting
back to the close-knit community. Of course my boatman works for the same
business as my travel agent and my hotel owner.
Trying to work out who deserves the biggest tip for all these excursions
and treats that are pre-paid I am working on the basis that the “little people”
most need to be tipped. The 18 year old Goal was very proficient not only in
rowing but in his English explanation of the sights of the Ganga at night and
in the morning. I observed both the sunset and ritual cremations on the shores
of this most holy of rivers together with Brahmin-led chanting and song with
fire and lights and incense and the rhythmic sounding of gongs and clapping in
praise of mother and goddess Ganga. Then in the morning I observed the ritual
bathing of many Varanasi residents (many of whom do it daily) and visitors from
all over India and all over the world. The south Indians have a particular
veneration of mother Ganga and travel the great distance to visit for
Mahashivratri and the ritual bathing that goes with it. It is widely believed
that the soul that dies in Varanasi is transported by Shiva directly to heaven
and escapes reincarnation. This means that there are many hospice like places
near the shore where devout Indians are brought just before they die so that
they can bathe daily in the Ganges if they are fit and when the die can be
cremated on its banks.
As I write this I am struck by the contrast and comparison with hospice care in the Christian Vellore hospital which I will visit next month and about which I
have some testimony already gathered about how family members from the
surrounding area are brought to this hospital when there is nothing more to be
done for them in their local community. My speculation (yet to be tested by
visiting and conversing with staff) is that the hospital functions in some part somewhat
like hospice care for the dying. Though in this context of course there is no ritual bathing nor any particular promise
of escaping reincarnation ! :)
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