After entering the mill through a side door, I noticed a long row of old unused looms and somewhere from behind the familiar clumping sound of a hand loom was emerging out. An old man perhaps in his 60's strenuously working on the farthermost loom came near us and introduced himself as Rangaiah and that he is the one of the few workmen in the mill. We requested him to explain/show us the working of the loom and he was glad to make us familiarize the same.
I cannot describe the entire art of weaving but what I can surely say is that it requires good coordination of both hands and legs. It definitely would take good effort mastering this skill.
Then he said, "I work for the whole day and I get paid twenty five rupees. What can I buy with that? Thats why I have not put any of my children in to it". It looked very logical of him to say this and I tried to intrude, "Why is that the payment of yours so less. Why aren't there customers for your cloth?"
"Days are gone when people wore simple cotton garments made from hand-looms. Recent textile advancement in the form of more shiny and cheaper polyesters and development of completely mechanized itself emerged in to the market and became wont of the day. And even recently, availability of read-made garments in the retail industry also affected the hand-loom industry. Also on the other hand, cotton continued to be as costly as it is and hence price of pure cotton cloths could not compete with the newer clothes".
So, I got another question to him. What has the government been doing all the while the industry is dying? Is it not helping these people out by finding suitable sales for this cloth.
He said, "Yes, Government has been trying to help in some ways at least. It has taken an initiative such that public institutions such as government offices, Indian railways etc. should buy this cloth and use it for their purposes wherever required. Some market has been carved out for these products".
We felt we got some kind of insight in to this art and its present market value. One question was lingering in my mind as to what all the old looms lying in the mill doing. Have they been discarded of being old or non-functional and then never cared for. My friend wondered that aloud and when we did ask him, he replied, "These are all dead looms. They used to be used by people who are dead now. After their death, there is no one to work on them and hence left non-functional." And finally pointing to the loom he was working on he added, "Once I am gone, even this loom will become dead".
I felt very sorry for this man and the industry and was very uneasy coming back from there.
