Q1.
Have you seen products woven out of natural material at home or elsewhere? What are they?
Answer
Yes. Many things in an Indian home are woven from natural material — mats, baskets, ropes, cots, fans, brooms and winnowing trays.
Talk about the ones you have actually seen. Here is a list to help you.
| Woven thing | What it is woven from | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Chatai (mat) | Palm leaf, date-palm leaf, madur grass, reeds | Spread on the floor to sit or sleep on |
| Basket or tokri | Bamboo strips, cane, palm leaf | In the kitchen, in the market, on a farm |
| Charpai or khaat | Coconut coir rope, jute rope, cotton niwar tape | The woven cot in the courtyard |
| Doormat | Coconut fibre (coir) | At the door of the house |
| Hand fan (pankha) | Palm leaf, bamboo | Used on a hot afternoon |
| Soop (winnowing tray) | Bamboo, cane | Used to clean rice, wheat and dal |
| Jute bag, gunny sack | Jute | For carrying grain and vegetables |
| Cloth — saree, gamchha, towel, uniform | Cotton, silk, wool | Everything we wear |
The photographs printed in Activity 1 on page 133 show four such things: three baskets of woven palm strips, a small green-and-yellow woven basket with a handle, a flat woven fan-shaped piece, and a green ball of palm leaf woven in a hand.
What all of them have in common: None of them is cut out of one big sheet. Every one is made from thin strips that pass over and under one another. That is why they are strong and yet bend easily — the strips hold each other in place.
For your discussion: ask each other, “Which of these is made in our own village or town, and who makes it?” In many places one family or one community has been making that thing for generations, and they know the material better than anybody else.