The Barpali Days

This blog is the Facebook of Barpali which picturise its "life" and "culture". It was a "palli" or a village a century back where the all time great Oriya poet swabhaba kabi Gangadhar Meher had taken birth. Now this bustling little town is renowned world-over for the weaving of Sambalpuri ikat handloom fabrics. Agriculture is its prime economy. And when you happen to visit this little town don't miss to taste Chaul bara.

Breaking

Oct 20, 2011

10:44 PM

Priti Rao - Weaving a Success Story

[Ms.Priti Rao while interacting with the weavers at Bandhpali]

One cool morning of January 2009  the Asst. Director of Textiles, Bargarh called me to ask, if I could forward a little help. I said, "Kiran is on call 24X7. Yes please do let me know in case someone need B +ve blood group or if I need to forward a birth-day gift to a relative of yours". He smiled at my explanations. He said, ji ji nothing like that, but a honourable job. He told, "a Mam came down from UK, she wants to carry research work on Sambalpuri sari-weavers at Bandhpali. I think you are the only English speaking gentle-man at Barpali who could guide her". My mind started wandering, it would be a white-skinned elegant English girl from Europe. But he further clarified she is a Konkani girl  from Mumbai.

No matter who ever you are, whatever your social status, but when you visit an unknown place, you are subject to fear and resentment. So I able to judge, what this girl would have in mind. Orissa a state though having the world heritage of ancient temples, a state having forests, waterfalls and with the rich mines and minerals. But of late, my state has become notorious for giving shelter to the deadly mosquitoes which breeds malaria parasites. These mosquitoes are taking more lives than the often media hyped Maoists.

Next morning I got up early to have a bath, chosen the best outfit from my cupboard, finished the prayer rituals in the most shortest possible way. By 9.30 or 10.00 AM a Tata Indica car parked on the entrance of our house. And there she got down. A young woman may be in her early thirties. She was absolute fair skin, with denim trouser and a cotton shirt, a thin white-spects, yes as if a England ki gori-mam. The only evidence of her being Indian was her black hair on head.

Fearlessly she walked in with a friendly smile, " Hello I am Priti Rao. I am doing PhD at School of Design, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. I need to do my thesis on the Sambalpuri saree weavers at Bandhpali. Could you find me a suitable accommodation at Barpali".

Here I able to show the best image of self by calling a property dealer to impress Priti Mam. He took us on ride to show three vacant houses. The first one was a single-room having door to enter but no windows. She said I need to have a well ventilated place to live-in. The second house had two rooms but got Barpali latrine, the water-shield cemented toilet. Once again a big NO. The third house found to be somewhat OK. But here the landlord asked, who will be responsible if something goes wrong with this alien.

With this my "Mission Priti" came to a stand-still. I said to her, you might have British Pounds to pay, but we don’t have the resources to serve you. She said, I shall be back in India when the summer ends, hope by than you will work out something. I told her in Hindi filmy andaz, "mei hoon na".

Days went by, on calling her cell-phone it didn’t responded. I reached to the conclusion she would be back to UK. In the mean while my Dad gifted me a laptop. I got an email ID created and started learning to send mails. After a couple of days I got back her reply. At that moment  I felt being connected to the world. She wrote, “I shall be reaching India soon, have you found any suitable house”. Once again the hunt for a house started. Instead of carrying my LIC sales-kit, I started riding my bi-cycle with the burden of searching  for  an accommodation. Fortunately, I able to find a house at Bandhpali village itself, with all the modern amenities. Now Miss Priti  asked me to send the photos of the house and its interiors. I said, on this remote part of the earth, there is not a single photo-studio. She said, “ How  crazy , cant you take snaps from your cell-phone”. I said, but mam I am using a first generation mobile phone with no in-built camera. She told, "OK Kiran now the next big job is to find four boys who could assist me on my research work. I shall happily pay them, whatever minimum stipend possible".

Life is like this. No sooner one of our need is fulfilled, we set the new targets to achieve. Haphazardly, I started enquiring people, are you jobless, would you like to work, do you want a job. Everything failed. I published the bill-boards at the local computer training institutes, LCC and NICE. Unbelievable, by evening one phone call came in my cell, “is this Kiran Sir, I am Sanjib calling from Remta, wants to apply for the said job". This single call pumped my adrenaline. Second day two more candidates approached. I asked the candidates to prepare resumes. Virtually I had to dictate the spelling of a resume, as B-I-O-D-A-T-A.

In a short-span of three days I became a talk-of-the-town, among the college going youngsters. Everyday two or three students came to forward the resumes. I started feeling as if I have floated a company of my own and going to engage a few employees. I gathered as many as 12 resumes.

Finally the count-down began. I received Ms.Priti Rao at Barpali Railway Station on 28th August 2009 morning. I escorted her to the new found abode of her at Bandhapali village. She was surprised to find an accommodation more than expected at a backward village like Bandhpali. It’s a rural place with mud roads, where the power supply is regulated entire year and with no drainage system.


SMS from Priti Rao, 28/08/09, 21:59 hrs
" HI KIRAN.  THANKS FOR EVERYTHING. TODAY, I FEEL VERY HAPPY AND POSITIVE       ABOUT MY RESEARCH. GOD BLESS YOU. GOOD NIGHT."

On 29th August morning by 11.00 AM the interviews started in my office complex. In a whole there were 14 candidates who appeared for the interviews. Someone was nervous, the other speechless, the third one was restless. Entire life I was on the hot-seat, to appear for a job interview, while I was working at Delhi. But for the first time I am on the host-seat, comforting the candidates who were nervous. What I discovered this day is, finding an able candidate is much more difficult than finding a suitable job. Finally mam recruited a few to engage on the job of collecting the data of the saree weavers at Bandhpali.

On the fourth day Priti mam came to our home to convey thanks. She politely handed over a gift pack to me, which I accepted with a little hesitation. I said, if I accept any gift than my sincerity will be discounted. When I opened the pack , there was a sleek Samsung cell-phone with the features of still and video camera.

Lo my new cell-phone is ringing again. My lord, it is Priti mam, let me attend her,
 " Yes Mam, how could I serve you ................."

And here is the outcome of the efforts of  Ms.Priti Rao  in a video form :   

kiranbima@gmail.com

E.KIRAN MOHAN (this blogger)
C\o. Dr.E.R.Rao (M.D.)
Tehsil Chowk,
At\PO - BARPALI - 768 029
Dist. Bargarh, Orissa, India
WhatsApp# +91 82493 14972
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Oct 2, 2011

8:06 AM

Blind Meher's Family - Living life in a world of Darkness


Here at Barpali lives a family  where all the siblings are blind by birth. It is a bhulia meher family, a community whose prime vocation is weaving of cotton based cloths. They are three brothers by the name Chaitanya Meher (63), Fakira Meher (60), Rabindra Meher (57) and sister Subhabati Meher (54).  They had  one more blind sister  by the name Sukanti Meher  (the eldest) but she passed away a decade ago. Blindness is not a genetic disorder. Unlike these siblings, their parents were physically fit, and neither  their children are blind.

Over here people believe, it was a curse on the family. Three of these brothers are married, while the sister Subhabati is a spinster who stays along with her three brothers, under one shelter which was provided by their late father.  Once  in a month they  come out of their hatch   to reach  NAC Office to collect the handicap pension. Each of them get Rs.200 /- (roughly 4 US $). One of their children escorts them to the NAC Office.

There is no other handicap which could be categorised worse than the blindness itself. It destabilises the domestic atmosphere of the entire family. As a consequence, in many families a blind person is kicked out  to the streets to make a living on his own by begging. But, this Meher family did not opt to surrender themselves to the prevailing circumstances. Deprived of the vision, they failed to undertake the vocation of their community i.e. weaving of Sambalpuri handloom sarees. Instead, they opted to do the secondary job of their trade. It is to open the knots of the bandha or ikat. Not many opt to do this job, as it is a labour intensive cottage industry. 


[Sishupal Meher a young kid of the family studying in Class 8th]
Their children go to the streets to collect the dyed knotted bunch of threads from the weavers. All four of them seat calmly at home and open these knots entire day. Mostly each of these bunches of threads carry 40 knots at different places. They are paid a meagre Rs 3 (Rupees Three) only to open the knots on a bunch of threads. At most, each of them is able to open ten bunches of threads a day.  So, each of them  make around  Rs 30  for the whole day’s work,  which  works out to be less than one $ a day !! Top of it, they do not even get this job on a regular basis. Things can’t get more worse than this.

“To be blind is not miserable; but not to be able to bear the blindness, that is    miserable”
                                                                                                   - John Milton

Though this family is under-privileged,  but till date  they have not been issued with a BPL  (Below Poverty Line) card. In the State of Odisha, a BPL Card holder is eligible to get 30 kg of rice every month at Rs 2 per kg. But most of the time this quota of rice is being wrongly channelled to the open market by the authorities, thus, forcing the poor people to buy the same rice at Rs 15 per kg in the open market.

However the irony is that, around 80 percent of Barpali population is not aware about the existence of this family (including this writer, until recently) as they leads a secluded life at home with their prevailing circumstances.  

Now you judge who is actually blind !!

kiranbima@gmail.com

E. KIRAN MOHAN,
C\o. Dr.E.R.Rao (M.D),
Tehsil Chowk,
At\PO – BARPALI – 768 029,
Dist. Bargarh, Orissa, India.
Cell # 91 99 371 20565 
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Sep 25, 2011

11:56 AM

A PICTORIAL VIEW OF BARPALI (ODISHA), INDIA

          [Barpali vegetables market]

06/01/2024
[Amrita Sabat an aficionado of ikat  Handloom fabrics from Bhubaneswar expressed her wish to explore Barpali cluster. Developer of this blog E Kiran Mohan escorted her to different weavers at Barpali]

01/04/2022

[Two buyers came down from Sambalpur to buy ikat Handloom sarees. Developer of this blog E Kiran Mohan introduced them with master weaver Dayalu Meher]

28/02/2022

[Two  Handloom buyers from Ahmedabad, Gujarat contacted developer of this blog E Kiran Mohan. Who introduced them to ikat  Handloom weaver  Swarnalata Meher of Barpali]

08/12/2020
            [A vendor selling winter wear at Barpali]

                                   10/12/2014
[Artist Bijay Biswal could be seen here alongwith his paintings during an art exibition conducted by Kala Bhumi at Barpali]
                                                                                                                                                                 14/11/2014
[Dr.Patricia Peyrat of France could be seen interacting with Writer E.Kiran Mohan  at Gopaipali village. She came down from France  on reading this blog to help Jharna Meher of Gopaipali]
                                                                                                                                                                14/11/2014
[Dr.Patricia Peyrat (blue t-shirt), Cecile (Centre) and Marc Peyrat (red t-shirt)  the three French nationals could be seen with Jharna Meher
and her mother. They donated one sewing machine and two goats to this poor family on reading this blog]
                                                                                                                                                             05/10/2014
[Saroj Rout the artist who belongs to Barpali  conducted his first ever
solo art exhibition at Kalyan Mandap of Barpali. ]
[The entrance gate made with the timber at a cottage in the Dakbangla Pada, Barpali.
It hedge the mongrels and cattle from entering the house.]

[This is how the dry straws of paddy after its being harvested
are being stacked on a open field at village Nileswar near Barpali]
[Dr.E.R.Rao (MD,Pediatrics) of Barpali
while attending a patient in his clinic]
[Ghasiram Rana : a cement sculptor of Barpali while at work
on his workshop near Tehsil Chowk]
                         Photo courtesy : Sujata Dehury
[a hand sculpted wooden door likely to be 100+ years old 
at Kansari Pada, Barpali]
           
                                                                                                                  26/01/2014
[Brata Upanayana of Kuldeep Mund, Barpali]

                                                                                                                  27/11/2013
[Seen over here Smt.E.Rohini of Barpali doing Jhuti called Rangoli
 in Hindi for a Thursday during the Hindu calender month of  Margasira]
                                                                                                                  28/09/2013
[Anne Herms a student of Anthropology from Germany at Barpali in conversation
 with E.Kiran Mohan  this writer about the life of Bhulia Community]
                                                                                                                  14/06/2013
[Arup Chakrabarty (second right) of Kolkatta came to take the blessings of Kapileswar Baba during the Sital Sasthi Jatra of Barpali.
He was directed in a dream to go Himadri Nagar to recover from liver transplant. He searched  in the web for Himadri Nagar and reached this blog and contacted this blogger. Arup works with a MNC. Earlier he was in London for few years]
                                                                                                                  11/02/2013
[Dinesh Joshi and Candace Joshi the two ikat buyers who came to Barpali
from Los Angels, USA  meerly through this blog]
                                                                                                                  25/01/2013
[Nimisaranya - an old lady while plastering her cottage with the earth] 
                                                                                   08/01/2013
[an old lady basking on the sun at Chammarpada on a winter noon.
Also seen Gobbar Chenna the dry cow dung  used as a fuel for cooking]
                                                                                                                  08/01/2013
[Anagha a textile designer and a student of  Sir J.J.School of Art, Mumbai on an ikat tour of Barpali ,
She came to Barpali through this blog. She is posing along with her husband (centre) and this bloger E.Kiran Mohan]
                                                                                                                  09/12/2012
[Alpa Mistri an ikat tourist  who came down from England to Barpali through this blog]
[a villager selling Nag Phena made with raw paddy straws offered Puja during Margasir Gurubar] 
[The Railway Station of Barpali which got just two platforms with a low frequency of trains]

[Dr.Manindra Kumar Meher the professor of Odia at Sambalpur University
and the great grandson of swabhba kabi Ganagadhar Meher on his study table]
[Bailjhuri Friday Market - the worlds largest open air hadloom market near Bargarh]
                                                                                                                      20/09/12
[Rajbati of  Barpali the residence of  the past Jamindar]                                   
[The inside view of Durga Mandir of  Barpali at Madhya Para]
[Mandhata Meher the budding sand artist of Barpali]
                                 a photo contributed by our reporter Rinku Sahu         01/08/12
[Jal Abhisek otherwise called Jalsei of Lord Shiva at Sidheswar Mandir]
                                                                                                                   09/05/12
[a baidya selling herbal medicines on the street]
                                                                                                                16/04/2012
[a kumbhar carrying the matkas to sell on the street on a summer noon]
                                                                                                                         04/03/2012
[Brata Upanayana of Ritesh, Ludkibeda village]
                                                                                                               14/03/2012
[Mrs.Anjana Desai  a tourist from Mumbai drawn to Barpali  solely by
 barpalidays.blogspot.in while posing with ikat weaver Lalit Meher]                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                           04/03/2012
[The green paddy fields on the way to Ludkibeda village]                         
                                                                                                               09/03/2012
[Children on the street, the day of Holi 2012]

[Santoshini Mata a wanderer of Alekh Mahima cult]
[the school children of  Upper Primary School in Gandhi Nagar]
[It is how barati people are transported in a truck breaking the safety norms]
[two carpenters while making a bullock-cart]
[two cows while resting under a shadow on the wayside]
[the Durga Mandap at Tehsil Chowk, Barpali]
[a dog feeding its puppies]
[a typical pushcart of bhuja mixture known as jhalmudi in West Bengal]
[an elderly getting his pan prepared at a betel shop]
[an old couple while buying the famed Sambalpuri sarees]
[Sana Sahu a lone old-woman having no family and job]
[Children dancing to the tune of loud music on the day of  Nuakhai]
[Durga Puja 2011 at Tehsil Chowk, Barpali]
[a dirt filled Bijepur Road in a rainy day ]
[a tribal woman selling dant kathi the sticks chewed as tooth brush]
[two youngsters while bathing at a hand-pump surrounded with  unhigenic sanitation]
[a cycle mechanic at work under the tamarind tree at Gandhi Chowk ]
[a group of women relaxing early hours on Shiv temple premises]
[a picturesque scene of  Kusta Bandh (pond)]


E. KIRAN MOHAN
Tahsil Chowk
At\PO - BARPALI - 768 029
Dist. Bargarh
Orissa, India
Cell #  91 - 99 371 20565 

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