Pocham Palli

         Vani and Prasad live in a village called Mukhtapur. Their home is always filled with bundles of bright-coloured threads. Their mother and father and everyone else in the family are weavers. The weaving that they do is very beautiful and special.

        Mukhtapur village is in the Pochampalli town (mandal) of Telangana. Most of the families in this town are weavers. That is why the special cloth that they weave is called Pochampalli.

           The villagers have been doing this work for a long time. Vani and Prasad’s parents learnt weaving from their elders.

Process of making pochampalli sarees

           Now Vani and Prasad also help their parents after coming back from school. This weaving requires hard work, and many dif- ferent things have to be done before actually weaving.

From thread to Cloth

          Father brings bundles of thread from Pochampalli town. Mother then puts these threads in boiling water to wash away the dirt and stains. Then everybody works to dye the thread with bright colours. These threads are then dried and rolled into bundles. These bundles are put onto looms and the cloth is woven. Silk cloth and silk sarees are woven from the silk thread. Cotton thread is used to weave cotton sarees, cloth, sheets, etc.

      The loom has many needles. The size and number of the needles changes according to the design. The weavers weave the beautiful Pochampalli sarees in bright colours. Through their traditional craft they have made their region world famous.

A Craft in Danger

Great skill is needed to weave such special sarees. It also takes many days of hard labour. After all this, it is difficult to get a good price for these sarees. Silk is becoming expensive day by day. Big shopkeepers give very little money for the sarees, though they themselves sell them at very high price. That is why many weavers are giving up their family craft. Many are leaving their villages to work as labourers in big cities. We need to solve this problem by helping them get a better price. Otherwise, this precious craft will be lost forever.

Discuss

Vani and Prasad learnt this beautiful craft from their family members. When they grow up, do you think they will be able to teach their children the skills of this craft?

Write in your notebook

Ö Have you ever seen anybody weave something on a loom?

What were they weaving and where?

Ö The threads of a saree are dyed. Do you know of any other thing that is dyed?

Ö If you visit Vani’s village it seems as if the entire village is weaving sarees. Do you know of any other work which many people living in one place do?

Ö Do they make some article?

Ö Find out the process of making the article? What are the different steps?

Ö Do men and women do different kinds of work to make this article?

Ö Do children also contribute in making this article?