Got any big plans after "first sleep" tonight? This question might have actually made sense centuries ago, when human sleeping patterns appeared to be much different.
What do nations care about the cost of war, if by spending a few hundred millions in steel and gunpowder they can gain a thousand millions in diamonds and cocoa?― W.E.B. DuBois He died. In an assisted (sic) care (oxymoron) home (nope) facility/prison (yes). Homeless for a few years; he was a photographer; and his […]
Illustration by Leea Contractor
It has been half a century but I can still vividly recall watching Ilahi Pawli in awe, as he worked on his handloom, weaving cotton cloth, thread by thread. On sunny winter days, he would set up his loom in the open ground outside our house, which gave me a chance to enjoy the spectacle in my pre-school days. In the rural areas, weavers (called pawli locally) engaged in this complex craft perhaps the only one that touched the boundary of industrial work and produced a commodity that could be ranked second only to food in importance.
Apr 20, 2021
In the fantasy genre, it’s popular for writers to invent some kind of special, magical material, such as “Valerian steel” from the Game of Thrones series, or Frodo Baggins’ mithril chainmail in J. R. R. Tolkien’s writings.
Now in Bangladesh, a lost art of weaving that once created the most spectacular fabric the world had ever known is being revived, bit by bit and full of improvisations, to restore a piece of intangible cultural heritage and the national pride of a nation.
The material in question is called Dhaka muslin, and a feature piece by the
BBC explains why one would be excused for thinking its story was pulled from