Eating is an agricultural act - Wendell Berry

Thursday, June 24, 2010

spinning the charkha

the gujarat trip covered umargam and ahemdabad. 2 days at each place.

ahemdabad is dear for many reasons, the key one will be the sabarmati ashram.
the beauty of this ashram is that few of the works initiated by gandhiji still continues, albeit under different trusts and diluted in pace and principles...
there is no entrance fee and anyone can take a tour of hrudaykunj - gandhiji's kutir - with no nagging security.
it simply reflects the same spirit of openness and transparency of the original ashram times.

we spun the charkha (again free for visitors to try).
it is so simple, elegant and enthralling. it will take more than 5 minutes to master.
but each of us (karpagam, ananthu and myself) were left shivering with a sense of wonderment and amazement.
simply put, it was watching an amazing transformation in front of your eyes and it is not just the cotton to yarn which i am talking about.

i reiterate my earlier position on making this a compulsory part of primary education.
we certainly aim to master this, install one at pR and positively move to weaving the yarn and wearing hand spun organic non-BT cotton.




2 comments:

Airspy said...

When I visited the Ashram in 1997, i was so moved by the chakra that i ended up buying one from a godown across the street. sadly, i still havent found the inclination to even produce an inch of thread, but the apparatus still lies in my attic. may be i should send it across to pR.

yes, i truly believe that it should be made part of school curriuclum, instead of excessive 'cutting pasting and crayonings'

csm said...

airspy - would love it :-)