Banni Villages – New friends far away

16. December 2024

 

 

So the next day my new driver Deep arrived, an older, very pleasant gentleman, originally from the Udaipur area, but who works from Ahmedabad and is very experienced. We now have a much smaller car – and somehow I find it quite comfortable. We drove back to the villages that are called Banni Villages. We made sure that nothing was repeated. I was a little curious as to where and how I was being guided this time.

 

First we went to a friendly gentleman with a weaving workshop. It was no longer a backyard workshop but a beautiful open space. Over 800 threads are stretched in such a weaving frame and then you weave eagerly. These also make fabric for kurtas, the short tunics, for example. Overall, I have noticed the following shopping behaviour about myself:

• generally very little (afterwards I sometimes think: too little)
• where I find people nice, I look until I find something suitable
• if the people seem very poor, I sometimes take something with me. A bit of pity buying, but I’m so happy when they do something instead of sitting around miserably begging or something like that
• I run away from people who seem unappealing without really looking at the goods

I bought something from this one because I liked him so much….

 

 

 

Then we went on to a village where there were various crafts. The most amazing thing is Rogan – you boil a mass of castor oil, mix it with colour, knead it, hold a metal rod in it and then let a thread run down from it to make a line on fabric. Can you imagine what that means? Otherwise and anyway: watch this film on youtube.

 

I think it’s really nice here that people demonstrate their work. Here is the artist:

 

 

Once you have applied something, press it onto another piece of fabric and leave both to dry in the sun. So you have 2 pieces at once. Or you can make synchronised motifs – although the finishing work is then done individually.

 

 

 

The finished pieces are quite expensive works of art that have my absolute admiration. The family that makes them is Muslim, which means there are no people or animals as motifs.

 

Then there was the contrasting programme: the poor quarter in the village. People decorate wooden spoons etc. with a layer of varnish. This was also demonstrated to me – and we walked around a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third demonstration in this village was by the bell makers. This man hammered this bell in front of me.

 

 

 

During the walk I did some more pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some gentlemen were loading 70 plus kg sacks of castor beans onto a lorry. Pretty hard work.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went somewhere else again, where I got a little insight into the village. There wasn’t much going on at the time. But I was able to take a photo of the pretty house with the kitchen.

 

 

 

 

Heat up water the modern way: With an immersion heater in a traditional pot:

 

 

Traditional heating with fire and the alternative at the front of the picture: gas cooker:

 

 

 

 

By the way, girls are traditionally married very early, i.e. at the age of 5 or so. Boys too, of course. Then they stay with mum and dad and stitch their clothes together. They say that this tells you what kind of girl you have married, i.e. how persistent, patient, accurate etc. she is. According to person A, they move in together at 30, according to person B at 16. There is a legal minimum age for marriage of anything over 20, but with the tribals, people don’t usually look that closely. I didn’t find out whether the boy had to do anything like that. But there are tribals where the boy’s family pays the wedding dowry.

 

After that I had had enough of places for tourists (by the way, I hardly ever saw a western face, all Indian tourists) and so we drove to Khavda. I wandered around there and made some new friends.

 

 

 

I had a T-shirt from Diamir that was too tight at the neck. Here was the opportunity to alter it, which this gentleman did after my driver explained. He quickly became a friend. And didn’t want any money for it.

 

 

He recommended another friend to me: the hairdresser round the corner. He cut my hair very short, massaged it lovingly – and wanted less than 1 Euro. I gave him double that, which is still less than what you pay elsewhere.

 

 

That’s how I like travelling. Making lots of new friends in a place where hardly any travellers tend to go.

 

 

 

And then we went back to Bhuj to a special accommodation. An old-established family opened up their town house and prepared 5 rooms. They were very popular and are often fully booked. But for 1 night I had the pleasure. One of the special things is that everyone has dinner together. Well only the guests, unfortunately not the hosts. But still. We were at the table: a couple with their own fabric production from Delhi (according to the motto ‘slow fashion’), 1 doctor from London with Indian roots and a daughter studying politics, as well as 2 retired couples from Surat who have known each other since primary school.

 

So the day was pretty full again and I was very happy and tired.