Category: Sura

70-75 different products are neatly packed into shopper bags. They travel from their village to Kannarapettai campus, in the overcrowded ‘share-auto’ – we have a few visitors. The big mat is laid out and all the products are neatly arranged, price tags stuck.I walk in and am pleasantly surprised to see the space set up […]

“What are we looking forward to?” I ask“Local elections! Pongal! Kanavu camp! Meeting volunteers!” the Sura women call out. “Hey we missed new year!” said one! “Ma’am get us a bulk order which we’ll have to deliver within two days, closer to new year.. We’ll give that as an excuse to keep stitching until midnight […]

One of our very early days at Sura – a quality checking circle. A yellow bag was stitched with red thread, a blue one with a white thread, a few other bags were not precise in measurement- I segregated all of these. When the women were asked to identify what they thought was wrong with […]

A long form was filled out- SURA was applying for a national award. After several rounds of applications and a visit, an email arrives, inviting us as winners of this award. An excited Shivarajani calls the SURA ladies and asks, “I have a really big news! A happy one! Guess what it is?” There is […]

“Why ma’am?! Everyone seems to be in a hurry always!!”“Hey! Do you remember our ma’am had also mentioned about doing something with scrap clothes? This cloth key chain reminds me of that!”“Look at this, the spacing of the stitching is not the same throughout” (a little joy of finding a similar mistake to theirs, in […]

Time: 3:45pmPlace: Periyar nagar – 150 cloth folders, freshly stitched, firmly ironed and finely trimmed, packed tightly maximizing space in the box- all set to go out for dispatch to a firm in Bangalore. The folders have a long way to go – from the poorly connected Periyar Nagar village to Kannarapettai headquarters; from where […]

“Look at this zip – it isn’t straight”“Oh yes! okay let’s do this again”“The Buddha face is cut into two – we can’t have an incomplete design!”“AAH! Ma’am, I was focussing on a straight stitch – didn’t notice the design”“oh! this is perfect.. but wait- this is 2 inches longer than our size”“But such a […]

The usual well-oiled hair, flowers, pleated saris are all missing – messy buns, semi-done plaits, nighties and towels, tired faces at 8 AM. The women are back here after stitching until 8 PM the previous night, wrapping up dinner, managing to steal some sleep and finishing up morning chores, before coming back here. There are […]