AD Can you really complain about being served a meal by the personal butler of the ethereal Maharani Gayatri Devi? Or, for instance, about being able to see the entire Milky Way while laying in the sand dunes in the dead of the night? I could go on with such examples, but if there’s one thing you really need to know about life-altering experiences in Rajasthan, it’s simply that you will never run out of them. Comforted by this very thought, I cheerfully bid goodbye to three of my esteemed colleagues as they rose up from the ground in a very large basket, a bunch of propane burners shooting angry flames inches above their heads into a ginormous hot-air balloon. To give chase in an Audi Q8 was certainly no less spectacular a way to explore the outskirts of Jaipur and, in any case, I wasn’t quite in the market for a new propane-styled hairdo.
Textiles are like languages. If families abandon them, they will die, says Akshita M Bhanj Deo, whose ancestors once ruled Odisha s Mayurbhanj district. Known for its Phuta Jhala sari, the coarse cotton with check prints was a common wear for the tribals of Mayurbhanj district. But sadly, very few clusters in Mayurbhanj make the Phuta Jhala sari now, says the 27-year-old communications strategist.
The situation prompted her to initiate The Karkhana Chronicles, a digital installation series, where this lost weave is one of the muses. Bhanj Deo is running the series along with Priyaraje Scindia and Chaitanya Raj from the erstwhile royal families of Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan respectively. Through Instagram stories and tours, they are sharing the history, importance and making of some of India’s ancient textile forms.