Weaving and Smoking



Women stringing thread to weave on the  handloom.

 This morning we stopped in the village of Akbarpur, where there are lucrative cash crops in mango and lychee fruits and small cottage industries including weaving cotton Gumchas (bathing sheets) and making bidis. Bidis (aka beedis) are hand-rolled cigarettes.

Women handweave the handsome, Ralph Lauren-esque plaid gumchas that are several meters in length and take up to four hours to weave. I bought one for a friend who is very fond of plaids for about $4 . The women make them on old handlooms in their houses which are open to a courtyard. Children, chickens and goats do roam there.

Women and young girls produce the bidis.They use tendu leaves for wrappers, fill them with tobacco and tie them with thread to keep everything in place. With a basket of supplies in their lap, women can roll up to 600 bidis a day. After rolling them, they bundle 25 together and tie it with orange thread. The finished products are then shipped off to bidi companies for packaging.

I haven't smoked in more than 20 years (I started when I was 12) but in the spirit of supporting a cottage industry I bought a bundle. Besides, I find bidi smoke aromatic. I paid 60 rupees (about $1.50) and later found out the fair price was 10 rupees (about 23 cents).

Me on the sun deck smoking my bidi

Accompanied by a Kingfisher Strong I lit my bidi. It didn't taste good like a cigarette should, but then I think all smoking materials are unpleasant no matter where their point of origin. My relapse into smoking was short-lived and like Bill Clinton, I didn't inhale.