BARGARH: To commemorate the upcoming FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup, the district administration of Bargarh has prepared a memento in the form of a handloom fabric which has the logo of the event weaved into it. These are being presented as mementos to special guests visiting the 75th Dhanuyatra underway in Bargarh town.
The limited pieces of the unique handloom have been weaved by a group of weavers from Jandol village in Bheden block of the district. In the size of a handkerchief with a width of 22x20 cm, the woven memento has a background in bottle green with the hockey world cup logo in golden and white colour threads.
Bargarh collector Monisha Banerjee said, “Bargarh is famous for its ‘Bandhakala’. We ensure to gift our guests something made of handloom as souvenirs. Since the hockey world cup is round-the-corner, we thought of doing something offbeat. Fortunately, things worked out as planned and our weavers gave shape to our vision within a short span.”
Banerjee had gifted one of the mementos to the hockey mascot ‘Olly’ when the world cup tour reached Bargarh earlier this week. Deputy CEO, ORMAS, Bargarh, Raj Gopal Dash said, “A group of four weavers from Jandol were involved in making the handloom memento. While weaver Radheshyam Meher designed it, Trilochan Meher did the tie-dye work and father-son duo, Pitabasa Meher and Subrat Meher weaved the design. We had ordered around 80 pieces of it and they managed to deliver it in less than 15 days”.
Radheshyam said, “The work was indeed challenging due to the time constraint. But as Odisha is the host for the hockey world cup, it was a matter of pride so we could not deny it. The pre-loom work took most of the time. Finding the appropriate thread for the memento, plotting the graph of the design, finalising the tie-dye work to aligning it onto the loom was done in just 12 days. It makes us proud when we realise that our work has become a part of such a huge event.”