Way back in January of 2010, as a young professional in Disney, I had an unexplored but burning desire to work with Indian handlooms. On a free weekend, I went to Mhow to visit my design partner Nikita who shared my passion.

And so started our journey. From the delight of visiting a new state, enjoying it’s delicious cuisine and listening to it’s unique Hindi, we met weavers in their homes. Their home was their workplace. The loom was the centre of the home, embedded in a depression in the floor, and weaving was their life. The whole family including the children, was involved in the process. Although this was the traditional way of weaving, to us these were new learnings. The humdrum of daily life, children playing, helping their parents when called, old parents presiding over the activities, all this co-existing with the clack – clack of the loom as a beautiful saree was woven, was unique. 

It was exciting, seeing the weavers’ expertise. The fabric was light with an almost luminous and timeless quality to it. It looked beautiful in any colour, dark or light, pastel or fluorescent. These sarees were perfect for Indian summers and grand enough to be worn even in weddings. But the designs needed to be contemporary. New colours had to be tried. The same designs were being made for years and a change was needed.  

The possibilities were endless and our imagination had been ignited! There was work to be done, exciting work and perhaps a chance to start working on our dream! We were eager to partner with the weavers to help them fulfil theirs. It was a moving experience, seeing the pride the weaver community had in their work, and their hope that it would be lucrative enough to pass on as a legacy to future generations.

It was a challenge too as some weavers were not willing to experiment, but we met some people who shared our vision. We worked hard, we created new designs with embroidery and hand block printing on the sarees. We sold our collection under our newly minted brand name Nikayi, that year in March in our first ever Pause for a Cause exhibition. 

Perhaps some of you may have guessed in which place Nikayi’s journey began. It was in the ancient town of Mahishmati in Madhya Pradesh, or Maheshwar as we know it ! A weavers town, scenically located on the banks of River Narmada, it’s main industry, supported by the royal family of Holkars, is weaving and all the ancillary activities associated with it. Looking back, those two years were memorable in every way. We started our dream project; we met some super talented and committed weavers who are with us to this day; we were part of an effort to revive and retain dying weaving traditions; we became part of an ecosystem to enable communities to sustain themselves; and most important of all, Nikita and I became mothers !!

– As narrated to Neelu Joglekar