TEXTILES, BLOCK PRINTING AND SARIS

In between the Gatore crematorium and the water palace, I got Abdullah to take me to the Moghul textile emporium, where apart from being able to purchase anything textile( wall hangings, carpets, saris, bedspreads and made to measure suits, in any type of material etc), you have the opportunity to see the artesans in action.In the first photos you will see the various stages of 'block printing'. This involves the stamping of an image(in this case an elephant), using five different stamps, carved from teak and superimposing them one after the other with an incredible precision, using different colour vegetable dyes. The finished print is then rinsed first in salt water and then in fresh water. The result being a multicoloured image, which will not fade or shrink when washed.This is done on a variety of materials from cotton, muslin and silk. The following images show the detailed sewing of various beads and mirroirs to produce anything from wall hangings to bed clothes and cushions, to produce unique, one-off images of Ganesha, the elephant god. After spending a good two hours watching and buying, I asked Abdullah to take me back to the hotel.
It was here that I made an executive decision to return home. There were several factors in my decision to cut short my visit. The first was that my father in law's illness had taken a drastic turn for the worse and I felt it my moral duty to be next to my wife for what could be a difficult few days?, weeks? ahead, especially in this festive period( which I personally loathe, which was one of the reasons I came to  India at this time of the year); another one was after just four weeks the misery and suffering which I was seeing on a daily basis was begining to affect me deeply, seeing how the so called ' untouchables' were living daily in the most abject conditions was bringing me down day by day. Another very important factor was that I was losing weight at an alarming rate(4kg in as many weeks). I told Abdullah this and he said that he would drive me to Delhi to grab the earliest flight I could arrange. I said that this was cool, but that I still had two important visits I had to make and that we would leave for Delhi the day after tomorrow.

Entre el crematorio Gatore y el palacio de agua, le hice a Abdullah llevarme al emporio textil Moghul, donde aparte de poder comprar qualquier elaboracion textil(colgantes para la pared, alfombras, saris, juegos de cama y hasta trajes hechos a medida de qualquier genero etc) tienes la oportunidad de ver los artesanos en su trabajo. Las primeras fotos que se ven son  las varias etapas de'imprimir con bloques'. Esto consiste en el marcar con estampilla( en este caso un elefante), usando cinco estampillas diferentes, esculpidos de teja y sobreponiendolos uno encima del otro con una exactitud impresionante, usando tintes vegetales de colores diferentes. El estampido acabado se lava primero en agua salada y despues se aclara en agua fresca. El resultado es un imagen de multicolor, que ni se destine o encoje al lavar. Esto se practica en varios generos desde algodon, muselina y hasta en seda. Los siguientes imagenes muestran el cosido detallado de varios tipos de adornos y espejos para decorar qualquier adorno, desde colgantes para la pared, ropa de cama, y cojines para producir imagenes unicos del dios elefante Ganesha. Despues de haber pasado unas dos horas observando y comprando, le pedi a Abdullah que me llevase de vuelta al hotel. Fue aqui donde decidi tomar la decision ejecutiva de volver a casa. La primera, mas importante razon era que la enfermedad de mi suegro habia empeorado drasticamente y decidi que era mi deber estar alado de mi mujer para lo que serian unos dias? o  semanas? importantes, sobre todo en esta epoca navidena(que yo personalmente abhorrezco y por eso decidi venirme a la India en estas fechas); otra razon era que despues de quatro semanas la miseria y sufrimento de que era testigo a diario me estaba empezando afectar profundamente, viendo como los llamados 'intocables' vivian en las condiciones mas miserables, que ningun ser humano tiene porque aguantar me estaban causando una depresion indescriptible. Otro factor muy importante a nivel personal, es que estaba perdiendo peso a una velocidad alarmante(4kg en tantas semanas). Se lo dije a Abdullah y me dijo que me llevaria a Delhi a coger el primer vuelo que yo podria organizar. Le dije que bien, pero que aun tenia que hacer dos visitas importantes y que saldriamos pasado manana.