CHENNAI: It was mid-afternoon when I spotted them, working under the shade of a large leafy tree, in Adyar. Three women were seated on the footpath, camouflaged by the vibrant, coloured bamboo mats hanging behind them. They worked with sharp focus, and agility — flipping stones tied through a thread across the wooden log.
“Yena venum ma?” a man asks, as I step into their shaded territory. Shanmugam pauses — arranges tall bamboo stems against the wall and looks at me expectantly. What are these mats for, we ask. “All these are moongil (bamboo) curtains that are used for balcony, kitchen, veranda, halls, and bedrooms,” he says, showing me the varieties on display. He has been making bamboo mats for a decade now, continuing his father’s legacy. Originally from Tiruchi, his father started the bamboo-mat business when he moved to Chennai several years ago and passed on his 40-year-old business to his son Shanmugam.
Shanmugam lives in Besant Nagar and now comes to the same platform every day of the week, opens the bundled-up curtains and displays them on the wall behind. He accepts and makes curtains only on order. “Balcony and window sizes vary from house to house, so we only make when a customer gives us proper measurements,” he shares. A few feet away from Shanmugam’s space, another woman patiently waits for customers. A board reads — ‘Nagarajan Bamboo Mats’. “My husband has gone out, so I’m manning the business for him today,” she smiles, not willing to share her name. Nagarajan’s family has been in the business for the past 40 years, too.
The same platform is shared by Nagarajan and Shanmugam, each with their respective workspaces — to cut bamboo logs into strips, a space for the wooden log raised a few feet from the ground, where the women sit and weave, and finally a space for finished products on display. The mat production happens every day from 11 am to 6 pm. Bamboo stems are sourced from Red Hills and surrounding areas. All other materials like threads, cloth strips for edges, paints etc. are sourced from Parrys Corner. “In one day, three people can sit together and weave 1.5 mats,” Shanmugam says. It’s not an easy job. Cutting the bamboo strips by hand is laborious, as bamboo is a hard and sturdy material. “Cuts and splinters are a part of my job,” says Shankar, as he cuts off sharp edges from the bamboo using his sickle. “It’s quite a difficult job because the stones are heavy.
Our arms hurt all night, after work. And the heat gets to us, despite the shade,” says one of the women, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “Not many customers come to us these days. People prefer synthetic curtains or cloth. And it’s hard to find good labour too,” Nagarajan’s wife shares. In the few hours that we spent here, not one customer had approached them. But with the arrival of summer, Shanmugam is hopeful. “We get more orders during summer,” he says. They also make special mats from vetiver, which provides a cooling effect in addition to a spicy scent. “If you put these on your windows, you need not use an AC at your home,” he shares, adding that sprinkling water on them makes it cooler.