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Meghwals (or Megh or Meghwar) are ethnic tribe in northwest parts of India and some in Pakistan. They are categorized as Schedule Caste class division by Govt. of India. People of this tribe are famous for their exotic and colorful costumes and jewelry. They live across far villages in Thar desert and share a common vocabulary, sensibility and visual cultural identification with other desert tribes like Rabari, Bhil etc.

Megh means rain in Hindustani and therefore the Meghwal consider themselves to be descendants and followers of the Saints who brought down rain into these more arid parts of India.

I visited Pugal region of Bikaner, Rajasthan which is around 80 km from the Bikaner city and is approachable by road. Interestingly the villages in this region have codes for name due to its proximity to the India-Pakistan border. I visited village of 8AD, 9AD and 2AD of Pugal to witness and record some of the traditional and authentic hand-done Meghwal embroidery work and techniques. It is mostly done by girls and women of community.

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The Meghwal artisans living in Bikaner produce goods for only for their personal needs and have very limited reach to the commercial market. Some local NGOs and sourcing brands like Rangsutra have been working with the artisans for sometime but the community lack in efficiency required for handicraft market. Craft clusters like Barmer in Rajasthan and Kutch in Gujarat can be a pathfinder for this cluster in Bikaner. The NGO called Jai Bhairav Welfare Society from Bikaner helped me reach these artisans. JBWS is working for welfare and upliftment of this community living in far flung villages of Bikaner.

Visual Culture –

Embroidery forms a key component of their visual culture as it is executed on products that are worn or given during marriage and as dowry trousseau for the young bride from her mothers side. The Trousseau is called Dahej and is comprise of various goods like Takiya – Pillow cover, Rumal – Kerchief, Jhola – Hand Bag, Khaleji – Mirror bag, Chapati cover, Gudri – Blanket/Bedsheet, Potli – coin pouches etc. All of them are kept as wedding/engagement mementos.

The embroidery makes use of mirrors and is characterized by its dense coverage, rich colours elaborate motifs and finished edges. Meghwal embroidery may be broadly classified as pakko (translit. – heavy), and kacho (translit. – light). While pakko utilities tight square chain and double buttonhole stitch embroidery, kaccho is mostly, running stitch, backstitch, satin stitch , herringbone stitch etc.

Pakko means solid, is a tight square chain and double buttonhole stitch embroidery, often with black slanted satin stitch outlining. The motifs of pako, sketched in mud with needles, are primarily floral and generally arranged in symmetrical patterns

Suf is a painstaking embroidery based on the triangle, called a “suf.” Suf is counted on the warp and weft of the cloth in a surface satin stitch worked from the back. Motifs are never drawn. Each artisan imagines her design, then counts it out –in reverse! Skilled work thus requires an understanding of geometry and keen eyesight. A suf artisan displays virtuosity in detailing, filling symmetrical patterns with tiny triangles, and accent stitches

Khaark is a geometric style also counted and precise. In this style, the artisan works out the structure of geometric patterns with an outline of black squares, then fills in the spaces with bands of satin stitching that are worked along warp and weft from front. Khaark embroidery fills the entire fabric

Patchwork and Appliqué traditions exist among most communities. For many embroidery styles, master craftwork depends on keen eyesight. By middle age, women can no longer see as well and they naturally turn their skills and repertoire of patterns to patchwork, a tradition that was originally devised to make use of old fabrics

Mukka is basically couching of gold/silver threads. It derives its design sensibilities from muslim embroiders. In this particular image Mukka embroidery is combined with Pakko embroidery to yield a spectacular work

Gallery –

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Meghwal Embroidery of Bikaner Meghwals (or Megh or Meghwar) are ethnic tribe in northwest parts of India and some in Pakistan. 

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Inside a public bus. . . . . #goa #shigmo #panjim #panaji #travellernottourist #brilliant #colors #siesta #sepia #people #Humansofgoa (at Panjim, Goa, India)

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~ La Isla Bonita . . . . . . #beaches #morjim #beachhopping #beer #laislabonita #lazy #beeachlife #sunsoak #sun #sunny #sundayvibes (at Morjim)

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A different sunset ~ . . . . . . . . . #againstsea #sunset #silhouette #solitude #hope #pictureoftheday #picturesque #silhouettesonthebeach #insta #Humansofgoa #colva #colvabeach

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A different sunset ~ . . . . . . . . . #againstsea #sunset #silhouette #solitude #hope #pictureoftheday #picturesque #silhouettesonthebeach #insta #Humansofgoa #colva #colvabeach

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The Summer Vacation

I feel it on skin and somehow the noise, and smell of things around, titilates the memories of innocent adolescence. I guess. I’m figuring it out as I’m writing.

It’s a feeling which is making me capable of temporarily suspending the registration of experiences that happened after I left my home town.

Now, recollecting selectively.

I’m 15 year old again. Summer vacations has just started.

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I stayed for a month in Moolachel, which is a small hamlet located in Kayakumari district of Tamil Nadu. In my stay, I came across particular kind of European looking cross stitch designs and some rare and intricate lace work done by the artisans of NGO I was working with. I was amazed by fine cross stitched strawberries and blue birds. Who taught them to draw these non-indigenous motifs was my first question. After some primary inquiry and some internet research I came to know about ‘Convent Embroidery’ of Tamil Nadu. According to known local history, as told by the craftswomen of Moolachel, two Belgian nuns came to Mulagumudu (which is another locality in Kanyakumari District) some 150 years ago to introduce, what is known today as, ‘Convent Embroidery’.

The tradition is inherited from Christian missionaries, hence the European motifs. Though over past 100 years the designs and motifs have gradually grown more Indian.

YMCA Moolachel , the NGO which has been working for welfare of local people of Moolachel from 30+ years, helped me reach the Lace artisans of the Village.

Meeting lace artisans

Jessi, 46, who has been making Lace from 27 years. She received her training from a convent center called Provident Lace Center at Ritapuram, Colachel.  She pursue Lace making as a secondary source of income. In a day she invest around 2 to 3 hours to lace making.

The designs are commissioned by local exporters on very low allowance. Jessi says based on her availability of time she earn from Rs. 1000/- to Rs. 2000/- per month from Lace making.

Lace artisan Jessi, and her home

Jessi’s Lace doily work setup

Close up of Jessi’s Set up

A Border Lace Stencil

Jessi’s Stitching Shop, her primary source of income

Moolachel Village

Lace artisan T. Rani, 54 age, trained from Mulagumudu convent, 25 years of experience

Rani’s Home

Narmala Mary, started lace making as a girl of 14 years of age. Trained from Mulagumudu convent, she works for the same institution on commission basis

A Meter lace/ Border lace set up ; A 10 meter lace, artisan get around Rs. 250/-

Narmala Mary working on border Lace ; because of her eyesight, she is able to complete 10 meter lace in around 20 days. 

National Awardee M. Mary Pushpa Rani showcasing her lace designs at an exhibition in Kanyakumari

National Awardees work

Lace designs commissioned by local exporters

A narrow kerchief lace

lace stitched with kerchief

A broad kerchief lace

Broad kerchief lace stitched on piece of cloth

A finished kerchief

a piece of table mat lace and a doily

A colored doily lace

A meter lace, can be used for lacing of big cloth-pieces

Lace makers of Kanyakumari I stayed for a month in Moolachel, which is a small hamlet located in Kayakumari district of Tamil Nadu.

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“It is extraordinarily dangerous to believe that mankind as a whole will progress and grow stronger if individuals become flabby, equal, and average.”

—F. Nietzsche, The Will to Power, §398 (edited excerpt).

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Recommended books (from A to Z)

A: The Awakening, Kate Chopin B: The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath C: Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky D: Don Juan, Lord Byron E: The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje F: Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury G: The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy H: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers I: Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison J: The Joy of Reading, Charles Van Doren K: King Lear, William Shakespeare L: Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill M: The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov N: Native Son, Richard Wright O: Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham P: The Persian Wars, Herodotus Q: The Quiet American, Graham Greene R: The Razor’s Edge, W. Somerset Maugham S: The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes T: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith U: The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera V: The Vegetable, F. Scott Fitzgerald W: Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte X: Autobiography of Malcolm X Y: The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman Z: Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Wartime Sarajevo, Zlata Filipovic

Click titles to read descriptions from Amazon

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A post shared by Nikhil Srivastava (@nixoze)

She believed in tactile love ~ . . . . . . #indiemovie #indiethought #moviesthatchangeyou #cinephile #pulpfiction #picoftheday #instamood #sadmovies #tactilelove #movie #pulp #noir #cinema

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REBLOG IF YOU LIKE ANYTHING FROM THE LIST BELOW (I WANNA FOLLOW SOME COOL PEOPLE AND MAYBE MAKE SOME FRIENDS)

- Green Day

-5 Seconds Of Summer

-Creeper

-Twenty Øne Piløts

- Halsey

-The 1975

- All Time Low

-As It Is

-Melanie Martinez

-Moose Blood

-Blink-182

-Arctic Monkeys

-Blossoms

-Waterparks

-The Hunna

- Pierce The Veil

-The Beatles

-The Who

- The Stone Roses

- SWMRS

-With Confidence

(I follow everyone back who follows me and if I don’t just message me)

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red wine and sleeping pills help me get back to your arms cheap sex and sad films help me get where i belong

i think you’re crazy, maybe

stop sending letters letters always get burned it’s not like the movies they fed us on little white lies

i think you’re crazy, maybe i will see you in the next life

beautiful angel pulled apart at birth limbless and helpless i can’t even recognize you

i think you’re crazy, maybe i will see you in the next life

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maybe gangster whales is what we need in order to fight climate change

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So, here you are too foreign for home too foreign for here. Never enough for both.

Ijeoma Umebinyuo, “Questions for Ada” (via wordsnquotes)

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Reblog if you like talking about movies

(via theblackhand72)

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You don’t stop loving someone just because you hate them.

Hanif Kureishi, Intimacy v(via thelovejournals)