When I lost my mother at four, I couldn’t understand the consequences. I was happy playing with my rag dolls.
Things changed when my father remarried. Though I was young, I could sense my step-mother’s aloofness.
So my go-to person was my loving, doting grandmother.
She would cook my favourite bajre chapati, she would sing to me and tell me stories when sleep eluded me.
My grandmother was an excellent seamstress and I spent hours watching her as she stitched up the most intricate designs on clothes.
When I was around 10, holding my hand in hers, she taught me to sew.
Sometimes I picked up her needle when she wasn’t around and hemmed in a few stitches on the wedding trousseau she was making for our relatives.
Barring the long walks for fetching water, a slow and idyllic life in our villages leave the women with plenty of time. So they weave magic on fabrics.
I grew up watching them in action, singing in unison and enjoying a camaraderie.
My marriage was arranged when I was 17. With continuous household chores, I hardly had time to stitch.
I soon lost my first child and it pushed me towards depression. I preferred solitude.
During those days of loneliness, I picked up my needle again, stitching for hours to forget my pain.
Thread by thread as I hemmed in the typical Barmeri motifs my grandmother had taught me, the designs came alive and the worries, entangled in my mind, smoothened out.
I realised I could carve a niche for myself with my embroidery skills.
I believed these simple skills ingrained in most women could empower them.
Overcoming the reluctance of my in-laws, I started selling small bags in 2006.
Though I’d never stepped out of the house, I found my way to an NGO working with rural artisans.
Though reluctant at first, seeing my persistence, they gave me a 500-piece order. I completed it on time, with the help of other women. That was the start. Now 22,000 women work for me.
I’m not literate, but my travels across India and abroad have broadened my horizons.
With no exhibitions and no fashion shows during the lockdown we felt doomed. We decided to overcome the hurdle by going digital.
My artisans and I are determined to make it work.
Read more about the livelihoods she has created here.
Reporting by Rakhee Roytalukdar, a Jaipur-based journalist. Photos by Rakhee Roytalukdar, Pixabay and Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan.
