Anakaputhur weavers are crafting a new legacy with innovative handloom creations, preserving tradition while bringing unique sustainable textiles to the spotlight.
An American professor, Arlie Russell Hochschild, once said, “Most women work one shift in the office or factory and a ‘second shift’ at home”.
Most women around us follow this drill. They wake up early, tend to household needs, get minimal to no time for themselves, and rush to their workplaces.
It was one such day in the life of S Valli, a weaver from Anakaputhur, Chennai. After completing all her household chores, Valli carried her wire koodai containing her lunch and other essentials to reach her “home” for the next seven hours. She greets her friend, who, with her legs folded, was on a charkha, performing bobbin winding the process of straightening out yarn from the hank into small spools with her eyes concentrating on the yarn being rolled over, and her hands continuously rotating the wheel.
Valli and three others begin by setting up the warp the process of organizing the base yarn that runs through layers of heddles to make a fabric. With the warp tied to beams, the weavers entered a two-foot-deep pit-loom. There, they step on the foot pedals, exerting energy, and manipulating the warp to lift and be tied with the weft yarn; a metaphor akin to how these weavers are tied to their laborious profession with minimal recognition.