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The Journey of Lakshya - Badhte Kadam

Every year thousands of children are rendered homeless because of tiring and terrible situations.Many of them are either forsaken by their parents or guardians or the children run away because of hardships that force them to look for comfort outside of their homes. But the sad reality is that hardships become worse once these children find themselves on the streets.

In this post, we commend the many young artists who have brightened our Diwali. These artists are young boys who found renewed hope amidst a life of prior hardship working as rag pickers and pickpockets in railway stations. Lakshya is a Self Help Group that strives to help these children by rescuing them from a life of terrorizing hardship. Their attempt is to rescue these runaways from the streets and the railway junctions by providing them food, shelter, opportunities to attend school on a regular basis while also vocationally training them such as they become self sufficient over the years.

Lakshya was started in 2004 by Ramesh Gupta in 2004 in the village of Bhatola, Faridabad
because he wanted to help those kids who had undergone a similar nightmare as he had in his childhood. As a kid he was rescued from the streets; he was exceptionally lucky because he was picked up by the police but was later handed over to Salaam Baalak Trust where they provided him shelter and rehabilitated him by teaching him some vocational skills.

In terms of craft, Lakshya is an amazing initiative because this organization has an eco-friendly approach to the things they help create. Not merely that, they have even managed to provide support to over 100 children and over 150 women in the years they have become active. The SHG is mostly known for its bag and similar such products made from waste paper and cloth.

Umesh, a member of Lakshya and Ramesh Gupta’s brother, insists on the advantages of
recyclability. According to him, there’s an abounding work culture at the SHG because the work is linked to the greater cause of helping children who are in dire circumstances. He says that children aged 8 to 15 help in rolling out these products to be sold later on. They are usually taught how to make bags from recycled paper. The fact that these children understand that even this recycled paper should be used to avoid wastage is a commendable feat to Umesh.

Umesh tells us that the newspaper bags are usually made by the women who are of Bhatola village because it provides them a means of income. Meanwhile jute and patchwork bags are a specialty of the street boys. Around 25 boys come together, some of whom are now married but still working with the SHG to make the jute & patchwork bags which are then sold later.

Umesh rues the market conditions as we talk. He says business has suffered a bit because of weak markets. He worries because it affects the group in terms of the allocation of their funds. The money that they gather from their sales goes in the children’s education because they feel that education is the true empowering tool that these kids require. He also vehemently discourages the donation system and says that Lakshya has survived all these years because of the hard work that their children put in.

Umesh also excitedly tells us about Lakshya’s products that are being doled out in collaboration with The Color Caravan. He tells us about patchwork products such as belts, wallets, wall hangings, handmade diaries, lampshades and photo frames that are being made by about 15 boys from Lakshya. Patchwork is mostly done with stitching small patches of differently hued cloth together to form an interesting piece of cloth (in this case the cloth is usually a leftover piece). He tells us that this cloth is then cut and stitch in accordance to what the final product is supposed to be. The children are capable to getting at least 3 -5 big bags ready but the durations keep varying. Similarly, around 4 -5 wallets are done while 5 -6 belts are produced in a day. 

He says that considering the SHG is situated near a village, it also becomes their duty to generate work opportunities for the village, and that is why much of the stitching and sewing work is handled by the womenfolk of the village. At the same time, children are sent out as small sentinels on the lookout for recycled paper and clothes from the streets. 

By the end of the conversation, we was left in awe of the work ethic of the organization and therefore we sincerely wish that Lakshya brings a bright future to all the children who were seen as stowaways.

 Lakshya's colorful products in patchwork are available on The Color Caravan. Check the collection here.

Artist Talkies: Sajid Khatri on the tie and dye tradition

In the remote town of Bhuj in Kutch, the now traditional and well known craft of tie and dye was first born about 5000 years ago and over the years it has found recognition as a traditional Indian craft. Bandhej or Bandhani is derived from the Sanskrit word “bandhan” which loosely translates into “to be tied together”. This word alludes to this notion of something that is closely knit together. This is such a sacred notion in the Indian tradition that in Gujarat and Rajasthan, brides are made to wear Bandhani saree because it is supposed to bring a lot of luck in their marriage.

The Khatri community also has a long drawn ‘bandhan’ with Bandhej. The entire tie-dye tradition is indebted to the Muslim Khatri community who allowed this method to thrive in India. What started as a means of barter with the different nearby communities as a means of survival became one of the trademark craft of not merely their community but also of the country over the recent past. The tie and dye method was used on clothes and then they were worn as turbans, sarees and ‘odhnis’ by the different communities. The various patterns on these clothes also were a means of identifying which community a person belonged to. 

Sajid Khatri, son of master craftsman Khatri Abdul Shakur Osman, has been over the years the torchbearer of the Bandhej tradition within his community and he is really humbled by this. He says it has been over 15 to 16 years since he joined the family’s craft tradition. A craft that was seen as necessary only as a means of survival for the community has thrived for so long that it has become part of the Indian heritage. He constantly reiterates the skill that is required in the art form and how over the years this skill has somewhat declined. But he is an optimist who talks about his community with pride. He tells us about how thousands of men and women are central to this continuity of the tradition. 

Sajid Khatri at work.

Abdul Khatri won the National Award in 1998 for his
contribution to the Indian craft heritage.

Sajid talks us through the process of bandhani and tells us that there are three major division of the process; first is the pressing method which is followed by the tie and dye methods which makes for beautiful and multi colored and layered cloths. In the pressing method, the design to be used is imprinted onto the white fabric. This imprinting is done with a thin transparent paper which has pinpricks on it to allow the colors to be transferred onto the cloth. The cloth is then pulled with a long fingernail where the hole has been imprinted on the cloth. This area is then tied and tightened in such a manner that the cloth protrudes to form a knot or a bhindi. Sajid tells us that this process is usually done by women. He says that the community has thousands of women who are adept at this technique, having learnt it from their childhood itself. 

Once the entire design has been implemented by tying knots or ‘bhindi’ over the cloth, it is then thoroughly washed. This is followed by drying and then dipping it in napthol and then some lighter colors. It is then again dried before the actual dyeing method is introduced wherein darker and then lighter colors are dyed onto the cloth to achieve the desired print. The tied knots avoid getting colored as the color doesn’t seep into those tightly tied knots. Once the final stage is dispensed with, the cloth is washed and if it is deemed necessary, is starched. 

He tells us that over the years, the community has shifted from natural colors to synthetic colors because it allows them a varied range of colors to be used on the cloth. He also says that natural dyes, even though they make their craft much more authentic, don’t allow for a good get up of the cloth overall. Plus over the years, natural dyes that are extracted from roots, berries and other such resources are dwindling; this along with the cheap availability of synthetic dyes have made such shift important. 

Another interesting fact that he tells us is that the one can recognize the design pattern based on way the knots are tied on the cloth. Many of the final products of Bandhani are known by various names, some of the common ones being Khombi, Patori, Ghar Chola, etc. The patterns on the cloth are also representative of the class of the various community, but they also tell whether a woman is married or is expecting kids based on the colors she wears. 

When we near the end of our conversation, Sajid tells us that his father, Khatri Abdul, who inspired him ever since his childhood, won the National Award in 1998 for his contribution to the Indian craft heritage. He humbly adds in that he himself is a National Merit Certificate holder since 2008 for the efforts he has put in. He enjoys the recognition the community has gained because it allowed him and his father to go places. He proudly tells us that he is waiting to go to Columbia in December for another demonstration of his skills at Bandhej. 

Sajid Khatri signs off by saying that over the years his art has flourished only because the community managed to travel around to display their wares. Older generations suffered because they remained within their boundaries. 

Abdul & Sajid's stunning creations are available on The Color Caravan. Click here to view the collection.