| Summer Vacations were long for me. At the end of | | | | wonder why such an art had been allowed to die. The |
| last term, after I finished my contract at a university in | | | | answer to this question was easy enough to surmise if |
| Nanchang, I headed home in early July, thinking I would | | | | one glanced through India's history and the saga of |
| be back in China by early September. However, it | | | | domination it suffered at the hands of invaders. More |
| turned out be a far longer vacation running to almost | | | | pertinently, in a world where money is almost |
| twelve weeks. | | | | everything, such exotic arts are bound to perish in the |
| My days at home were easy, relaxed and laid-back. | | | | face of competition from large multinational companies |
| After a long walk in the park adjoining the lakes near | | | | with their immense financial power. While Ayurvastra |
| my home in Kolkata, as the city is now known, | | | | producers laboured by hand, spinning, weaving and |
| changed from its earlier and better-known name | | | | dyeing their naturally-produced cotton and other natural |
| Calcutta, I would return home, read a couple of | | | | fabrics, the multinational companies mass-produced |
| newspapers and browse the internet, looking for | | | | synthetic or man-made and blended fabrics on |
| information on a variety of interesting topics and for | | | | state-of-art machines. Consequently, the weavers and |
| new developments in the fields of human endeavour. | | | | dyers, using their old contraptions were unable to |
| One day, while relaxing over long cups of tea, brewed | | | | withstand the onslaught from large companies and |
| with green tea shipped home from China I chanced | | | | soon their art was consigned to the graveyard and |
| upon an interesting article on 'Ayurvastra'. 'Ayurvastra' | | | | museums. |
| is a compound of two words, 'ayur' and 'vastra' from | | | | For long, the science behind Ayurvastra lay forgotten, |
| an ancient Indian language called Sanskrit. While I knew | | | | unused and buried in ancient texts until recently, when |
| that 'vastra' meant fabrics or clothes I was intrigued | | | | members of a family that once practised this form of |
| about 'ayur'. All I could guess was it might, in some | | | | dyeing came upon those texts and regenerated the |
| way, be connected to 'Ayurveda', an ancient Indian | | | | art. They took samples of their produce to the |
| system of health and medicine. It would be the Indian | | | | Ayurveda College which conducted tests and studies |
| equivalent of TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine in | | | | on the produce. They were pleasantly surprised to |
| China. While TCM has many practioners and is still | | | | discover that Ayurvastra actually helped patients |
| widely used, the old Indian system has all but died out. It | | | | suffering from a variety of ailments.such as skin |
| exists, but only just! | | | | disease, high blood pressure, hypertension, diabetes |
| A little more research led me to understand that | | | | and so on. |
| 'Ayurvastra' is a product of an ancient Indian practise | | | | Local authorities, when they heard about Ayurvastra, |
| of dyeing hand-made fabrics with medicinal herbs. | | | | stepped in and soon the intrepid members of the |
| They used different herbs and natural dyes to colour | | | | family found themselves in the glare of huge attention |
| the fabrics in pastel shades but the real advantage | | | | from the media and trade, both local and international. |
| was that those herbs and dyes helped cure a variety | | | | However, when they received a large order from the |
| of diseases. | | | | Saudi royal family for 'burqas', the head-to-toe veiled |
| At a time when there is such a huge global outcry | | | | garment used by Muslim women in conservative |
| against chemical dyes and their harmful effects on | | | | societies, Ayurvastra became a rage in Saudi Arabia, |
| health, with reports suggesting that some chemical | | | | particularly among the health-conscious. And, soon in |
| dyes can even lead to dangerous diseases such as | | | | other countries, as well. |
| cancer, I thought 'Ayurvastra' with its healing properties | | | | I returned home after a few days in the land of |
| was a great rediscovery. | | | | Ayurvastra, a little enlightened and a little humbled - |
| After thinking about 'Ayurvastra' and its benificial | | | | enlightened because I learnt about Ayurvastra in some |
| effects on health, I decided to go and meet some of | | | | detail and humbled because there is so much |
| the people who were trying to regenerate an ancient | | | | happening around us, of which we are so ignorant. |
| system of dyeing. I hopped on to a plane operated by | | | | On my flight home, as the aircraft soared through |
| a budget airline and found myself in a quaint little town | | | | cotton-like clouds I visualized celestial men spinning |
| in southern India. I went around the town, the 'works' | | | | cotton from the clouds, weaving them by hand and |
| where they produce the fabrics and even to an | | | | then dyeing them in the natural colours of a rainbow. |
| Ayurveda College, collecting as much information as I | | | | And, I thought to myself, if I am ever to do any |
| could. | | | | business it is going to be Ayurvastra. |
| What I found there both excited me and made me | | | | |