For Jen’s benefit, we did see kites flying in the sky yesterday, but not the sort that children fly! But Pete did see some children later in the day with kites.
At breakfast we met Linda and David, whose trip had been arranged by Victoria. After breakfast Arpit our guide arrived; he told us that Jaipur has 4.5 million inhabitants, mostly outside the old city, which has 7 gates.
We travelled along Highway 8 to the village of Bagru. We passed the queues of day workers, who wait to get hired for the day, there were groups of up to 500, most of whom worked in the construction industry.we arrived at the village of 250 families and were struck by the squalid living conditions with open drains and pigs, dogs and cattle wandering about the rubbish heaps.
Our first visit was to the Muslim block carvers, who use blocks of teak, mango or rosewood (depending on the intricacy of the pattern). This tradition is in its 5th generation with schoolchildren learning from their parents when not at school.
The cloths were 10 metres long, washed, dyed and dried on open common land. The mud printers trod the mud and then strained it to a fine liquid through muslin. The block was dipped in the mud and then stamped on the white cloth and immediately dried with sawdust. The cloth was was then dyed indigo in tubs which were 12 feet deep into the ground, the indigo flowers having come all the way from Australia. Once the cloth has been dried, the mud pattern was washed off to reveal the white cloth beneath.
As we walked to the next house we had to stop and change direction as a wailing sound from the women indicated a recent death in the family. Walking through the street we had to be very careful to avoid the drainage channels which crossed the road and try to ignore the stench of rotting vegetation.
The Bagru block printers are all Hindi of the Chippa caste. We saw a demonstration of the Bagru block printing, which was done on yellow cloth dyed with turmeric, which reacted with the organic dyes to fix the colour of the pattern. There was a similar process of pressing the block into the dye pad and then stamping it on the cloth. Pomegrate seeds helped to fix the dyed cloth which was then boiled before being dried.
Next , we had the opportunity to try the block printing ourselves and make our own patterned scarves. We chose different blocks which were used brown and black dye. Once we had finished, our scarves were put out to dry for 10 minutes in the sun, but we were told to dry them thoroughly in the sun later. It would take a few years to match the skill of the experts! Our souvenir scarves will be treasured.
Back at the hotel, we rested after our labors and had a snack before preparing ourselves for our next tour around the Old City of Jaipur.