KANNUR: With Onam approaching, Lokanath Weavers had drawn up a detailed plan to woo women buyers, by introducing new designer sarees. However, the Kannur firm suddenly started receiving scores of orders for a special kurta from last week. The unexpected rise in demand for the “premium stuff’ led to the staff working overtime.
The reason, as the firm later learnt, was the news that Lokanath Weavers had manufactured the fabric for the kurtas which the Kerala government would present to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as ‘Onakodi’ this year.
“The news drew immediate response from the public. We are getting hundreds of orders daily,” said P Vinod Kumar, secretary of the Lokanath Weavers Industrial Cooperative Society in Kannur. Despite the work load, neither Vinod nor the workers have any complaints. Vinod recalled that they were informed about the order during meeting of clusters of handloom societies. In it, Handloom and Textiles director K S Anil Kumar urged the clusters’ representatives to take up the task.
“I was hesitant at first, as the time to make the fabric was insufficient. However, since none was willing to take up the challenge, I decided to give a try,” Vinod said. He said they usually need six to seven weeks to come out with a ready-to-stitch product. “Our deadline was just three weeks. Fortunately, we could accomplish the task without compromising on quality,” Vinod said. He said until then, he had no idea that the state government sends ‘Onakodi’ to the PM and home minister every year.
Since he had not been entirely confident of succeeding, Vinod had kept his staff in the dark about who the intended recipients were. “The moment I realised we would meet the deadline, I told the workers about the importance of the project. Our weaver, K Bindu, was overwhelmed,” Vinod said.
Bindu, of Varam in Kannur, still can’t believe that she had been weaving something that the PM may wear. “I feel extremely excited. My phone has been flooded with calls,” Bindu said. Last Friday, Lokanath Weavers brought out the fabric, a 40-m-long piece adorned with light green, white, pink, ivory and olive green colours. “We sent it to the Hantex stitching unit in Thiruvananthapuram. It reached on Monday,” Vinod said.
Since the stitching unit takes up the work every year, it has the measurements for stitching kurtas for the PM and home minister, he said. The colour and pattern for the kurta have been designed by Anju Jose of Ramapuram in Kottayam, a member of the Kodumb cluster of Palakkad. “Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the place in 1956,” Vinod said, as he pointed to a huge black-and-white photograph in his office. Started in 1955, Lokanath Weavers has been functioning at Mele Chovva in Kannur.
Fabric for Onakodi
Lokanath Weavers manufactured the fabric for the kurtas which the Kerala government would present to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as ‘Onakodi’ this year