A Pink American in India: 11.29.2006....Block Prints and Garba

Not the most inspiring title, but accurate.

Block Printing in Old Ahmedabad

Today we made our way into old city Ahmedabad (ooooOOOoooh). Well I shouldn't mock it as it was the seen of some of the worst violence during the 2002 riots. However, it is relatively peaceful nowadays because there seems to be highly dependent chains of labor, particularly for textiles.

One piece of this chain is block printing.

Through a contact of mummy's (by the name of Kokali) we were introduced to a master block printer. He was a very polite man who had inherited his shop from his father before him. He also had stacks and stacks and stacks of very old wood print blocks.

We stayed and watched for over an hour as the printer of the shop laid out a print for a customer:

First select the print block...

Lay the print block....

And set the print...

Then repeat numerous times.

Watching this extremely labor and time consuming process gave me a sense of awe with how much is put in to making one simple cushion cover or sari. Remember this is only one step...you have the cloth weaver, dyers and tailors too.

We picked up a few items from the store and after a nearly 3 hour visit, and made our way home.

Going to the Garba

A friend of the folks had a son get married and they arranged a garba the night before the reception.

I had heard much about these events and was really looking forward to it. I got all spiffed up to dance too.

Unfortunately this was not the blow-out even that I had expected.

Mummy said proper garba's have hundreds if not thousands of attendees who are dancing everywhere. There just weren't enough people.

Of those who did dance it was pleasant to watch. I never felt the mood strike me to dance despite many, many please from others. I suppose I won no graces this night.

The most interesting part of the event was watching house maid and house mistress alike dance side by side throughout the evening. It gave a sense of a great equalizing effect.

Watching the garba action...