Saturday 21 May 2016

Remembering Razai' (Quilt)


Just before winters started (usually post-Dussehra, pre-Diwali days-Oct/Nov), my mother would start preparing for the colder months ahead. This meant getting the winter clothes out, washing or putting them in the sun and also to re-do/freshen the older Razais and the Lihafs. Razais were the lighter versions of the Lihafs, process of renewal involved fresh cotton fillers, washing covers and then finally sealing them with the stitching of the threads. As a child, I always found the process very tedious, and then later as a grown-up time consuming requiring a lot of labor, but never boring!

It started with taking off the older covers, cutting their old stitching lines and then washing them (by hand, as we did not have a washing machine then!). The covers if they were worn out were replaced by newer, shinier dupattas/old suit pieces (the older clothes got recycled) on the top. The bottom part (astar) was either bought new, or old one was colored again. In hot water, color was added, mixed and then cloth was added for a brand new color (mostly red) of the razai bottom. The most tricky thing was the "goat"(not the animal, but meant the corners), which were of plain color in satin usually, contrasted with the print of suit pieces/dupattas. Once the covers were fixed/stitched together, it was sent to the market cotton shop walas for putting cotton fillers inside the covers. Weight of heavy or light cotton decided if it was going to be a Lihaf/Razai! Lighter Razai involved more work by my mother.  In case of the Lihafs, shop walas added the cotton and then also stitched it together. Since, the cotton was thick it was left to the professionals to finish the job. Razai on the other hand, was delicate needed stitching under the expert supervision of my mother. Once the cotton fillers were added to the covers, my brother would get the Razai back and then it was beginning of the hard work! 

Post-lunch, after we came back from our schools the terrace was the place to be! The terrace was cleaned then on a clean big bed-sheet the un-stitched Razai was spread out in the warm sun. The neighbours were called as volunteers to put the threads, either the older Tai' (our elderly neighbourhood Aunty) or my childhood friend Shabbo (whom I suspected my mother loved more than me! She had also done a Tailoring course and could stitch perfect lines!). The entire exercise brought our immediate neighbours in the lazy afternoons on the terrace, as Ammi gossiped or discussed family issues or politics (both Tai and Ammi were politically very aware, thanks to the TV in our homes and watched news with interest).

Sometimes it was all of us and the Razai finished in just a couple of afternoons, with sessions of gossip and chai (made by me). If it finished in a couple of days, it gave ideas to my Mum to work on another one! My favorite past time, while all this was going on, was to lie down on top of the new, soft cotton Razai (like a bedding), and then get numerous scoldings for flattening out the fluffy cotton! As I got older, and our neighbours shifted from there, it was just Ammi and me who would put the threads. Mostly just her, who would call me incessantly to  needle the thread or would just ask me to give her company as I observed her working, till her cataract allowed. Her fingers often got swollen up, or bled if needle pierced while stitching and whenever I offered to do the stitching she hated them! My lines never went straight, they always zigzagged and my explanation was always, 'its a new design pattern'! But, my perfectionist mother would have none of it! She loved her Razais and wanted perfect lines of stitching on them.

To me the entire process only meant one thing- who would get to use the New Razai? My father (Head of the family, but made no contribution in the making of it, although paid for it), or my brother (who got the cotton filled, but nothing more!) or me (made cups of tea for the Razai stitch Volunteers, cleaned terrace and flattened the new cotton!) or my mother (who did the maximum work, but never used the new one herself!) Often it led to fights between me and my brother and whoever got it, it would make the other to take 'revenge' by jumping/using it like a bedding to make the new fluffy Razai flat! 

Those light, home made, delicate warm Razais are a part of my memories now, like my mother. The things that we use now are commercially made blankets, they do not have the warmth of my mother's fingers and I do not have the luxury of flattening them as they are already too flat!

Kitni asaani se
Khuli ruyi ko
Dhaago se bandh deti thi
Waqt ki sard raat me
Mere din, lamhe, saal sab bikhar gaye
Astar boseeda ho kar phat gaye
Dhaage toot gaye
Koi Mohabbat ki razayi nahi
Jiski garmi me
Main so sakoon!

Sunday 15 May 2016

Education From A Distance


A few days back I received a call from my senior colleague who told me to visit the Distance Center of Education of Jamia as they had some work. They had many assignment copies for checking and needed teachers to check them. Since seniors are often too busy, they refer such tasks to juniors.

Distance mode of education is for students'who for some reason are unable to attend usual regular course' classes. The center has helped many students, since its inception in 2002. The students come from varied backgrounds, but most are quite poor. Students that I had met some of them came from far off areas, could not even afford to travel for regular classes The study material is sent through post, and classes are held on the weekends (Sat-Sun). Some of them did not carry any mobile phones and some were first-generation learners in their families. The class divide is quite visible. 

A colleague from the center told me about students' coming from different parts of India like Kashmir, UP, etc. Also, many girls from Muslim parts of Delhi (Old Delhi, Seelampur, Sangam Vihar, etc) join here. Boys who left their studies mid-way to join family businesses/ shops' and now wanted to pursue their education, and girls' mostly whose families did not allow them to join regular college were regulars here. This was probably the only place that orthodox families allowed girls' to travel to.  Girls' dressed like dolls' for Sat/Sun classes, because probably that is the only time that they are allowed to be on their own and they experience the 'college life', remarked a friend from the Center, . 

The sensitivity of the University administration dealing with these special students' becomes even more important here. Students'defying their families to get themselves educated, changing buses to reach the institute, making numerous rounds of the offices' for small things, calls for a lot of dedication and patience, on the part of both students' and the University. The students' have a confused, scared look on their faces', they need assurance first and problem solving later, explained my friend, who is a part of the administration.    
    
One girl had missed the date for filling the form due to her fathers' by-pass surgery and had come with him to make a request to allow her to sit in the exams. The rules did not allow this year, but next year she could sit for both the exams (could give papers for two years!). So, she could save her academic year. There were many students' who came with different excuses/reasons to request for waking up late to the last date, some even cried buckets for losing out on a year but the consolation was the same, to apply for two years next session.

The assignments' from some of the students looked like carbon copies. Some had copied from internet, from Wikipedia with "citation needed" copied as well! (Internet copying is a universal problem though!). One student had submitted a 230+ page assignment!
(PhD Thesis these days are less lengthy!) 

Students' enthusiasm, overcoming hardships to get a degree is commendable but, apart from degree how much knowledge or learning are they able to get is a different issue. Education with its single focus on the Degree/ passing exams as compared to making the students' understand for learning/knowledge is a dilemma that we struggle with everyday. The insistence on rote learning for getting good grades is usually seen as sufficient!

 When we have debates over University autonomy, issues like ideological debates over Left/Right etc. there are even more basic problems that we need to understand that we take for granted. We need more public universities with better facilities and more scholarships for students'. Recently when I discussed this with a friend, she shared that in her University (Central India) some students' are so poor that they go without food for days'. In the interiors of India problems are even more complex. 

Beedi Peeti Aurat

 बीड़ी पीती औरत   अंकुश लगती है घूरती निगाहों को समाज नकारता है कुढ़ता है उसकी बेईमानी पर   उसके कर्त्तव्य याद दिलाता है   ये उसका हक़ नहीं   इ...