Muli -> LRK – The missing crocodile in the bathroom

12. + 13. December 2024

 

 

What is grown a lot here is cotton in addition to castor oil. Most of the bolls had already cracked open and soon you could pick off the tufts.

 

boll

 

taff

 

India is known for its great fabrics and their diverse manufacturing techniques anyway. We were getting closer and closer to the pinnacle of textile craftsmanship and there were always some amazing “factories” to see. In the evening, we visited a small village near Muli.

 

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In a few small, shabby rooms there were looms where men produced the finest fabrics. The speciality was to make small knots with extra threads, which then produced a pattern; the woven fabric then looked identical on both sides. One of them was weaving a sari from a silk-cotton blend. It takes about 15 days to finish such a piece and he sells it for the equivalent of over 400 Euros. That’s going to be quite a lot to pay in the shop. And then it’s amazing to see the small huts in which such precious stuff is made. I mainly made videos. Let’s see when/if I edit them together.

 

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There has been some interactions with the people and portraits and a groupphoto.

 

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While in this village several families were busy with the same craft, the next day in another village only one family was busy with a special textile art: Painting on fabric with a colour that does not come off when washed. They paint freehand and some of the motifs tell stories. Even though the sea is not far away, I found the many motifs with fish remarkable.

 

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Here’s a story with a demon and a kidnapped lady and a fight and I can’t get it together at all again. Only that in the end something pulled out through the body as a string and the demons could then be defeated with it.

 

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We have also seen stories on the street.

 

In winter, people like to mix jaggery with sesame seeds to make a sweet paste. As there were no animals left to grind it, people used a motorbike, which then drove around in circles on its own.

 

Motorcycle-construction

 

Jaggery and Sesame

 

Fire was used to push two corrugated plastic tubes into each other:

 

Fire

 

push

 

The village was built earthquake-proof – with more flexible wood between the stone – you can still see it here (it’s painted).

 

earthquake-proof

 

The whole of India is still full of so many things that you take note of, wonder about, register and perhaps forget again.

 

rubbish-caretaker

 

dressed idol

 

The next accommodation was in Dasada near the Little Rann of Kutch. There was a great accommodation close to nature, but it also confused me. The light in the bathroom came from a closed-off room without a roof in front of it. There was something in there that looked like a crocodile. A plastic crocodile. But when I came back from lunch, it was gone! Were they trying to trick me? How could a little crocodile run away?

 

crocodile

 

Raghu then enlightened me: It’s a monitor lizard – and they can climb walls! incredible!

 

The Little Rann of Kutch is a kind of salty marshland where salt is extracted and where many birds can be observed and wild donkeys live. The wild asses are the brothers of the Kyangs in the Changthang in the Himalayas. There was also a safari here, but I quite enjoyed it. We travelled into the area by jeep and stopped three times to get out. People lived here temporarily to extract salt, which looked pretty tough. They travelled around on mopeds to fetch water, food and other supplies. Most of the inland salt production comes from Gujarat. The wild asses could be seen from afar, as well as a few birds. There was also a shepherd from the nearby villages. The desert-like tranquillity was beautiful.

 

way to

 

Jeep

 

Raghu and Ranger

 

tree-remainder

 

birds

 

There were small piles of sand to be seen, which the Forest Department had erected and thought the birds would like them. But they didn’t.

 

Sandpile

 

In salt production, the area is filled with salt water during the monsoon. It is then combined into ‘fields’ where the water evaporates and lumps of salt remain. It’s a little more complicated – you always have to look and arrange and use electricity. The government switched to solar power in 2019, which reduces costs enormously. However, the work is probably quite harmful and people’s health is not so good.

 

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And here are the wild asses:

 

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There was another shepherd encounter and then tea and very tasty homemade biscuits on a small hill at sunset.

 

Shepherd

 

herd of sheep

 

me and Ranger

 

Sanket and Raghu

 

sunset

 

I like it better this way with the animal spotting and it was actually more of a jeep tour with a nature experience.

 

The next morning, Raghu said goodbye and I travelled with Sanket to more textile experiences.