“Aadhi kudil – this was the very place where I used to sleep under a Tarpoline sheet. There used to be literally nothing in the land. Sivaraj Anna used to say, ‘There would be children coming and learning from teachers here’. Today those words have manifested after 10 years, like a seed that has been doing it’s work silently under the soil. Today this workshop is happening in the same place where the kudil was”
said Sivagurunathan of Nurpu Handloom School.
Though there have been many workshops that have been held in the land, this was a unique one as it marked the beginning of Naitalim Teachers Training. The teachers who got trained by the mentors on the first day, inturn trained the children on second day. Teachers were trained into understanding the life cycle of cotton, need for hand spinning and the relevance of it today.
They were practically introduced into various components, their functions and assembly of a box charka. They were trained into taking away cotton from seed, making into hanks, making thread from hanks etc.
On the second day, children were introduced to the world of spinning through a story of how a granny spun a yarn and reached the stars through it. They were practically introduced into the magic of ‘thakkali’ on how cotton becomes a thread with each spin. Children enjoyed the process and got absorbed in silence. The day ended with documentary screening of ‘ The True Cost’ and discussion.
” Anna, we have been working in cotton fields here but we never knew what this cotton becomes after we harvest. But from now on I will weave my own dress ” said one of the children reaffirming the efforts towards Naitalim.
