Kwilting with Kats: India Textile Tour---Day 12

Up early for a trip to the town of Srikalahasti, which has an important temple to Shiva, but also has kalamkari artists, which is why we're going there.

Kalamkari has been made in Andhra Pradesh for centuries and has many practitioners in this area. We visited two workshops and saw the fabric both being drawn on by the kalam as well being dyed by painting and also mordant being applied. The method is exactly the same as the chintz we saw in Bangalore up to a point. There did not seem to be any wax resist used in Srikalahasti.

Holi dyes already available

It took us four hours to reach here, and the journey in itself was interesting. Nice to get out of the city and see the countryside. Hot in Srikalahasti, but lower humidity, which made it feel more like California, and thus bearable. We saw tons of mango orchards, but not in season yet, bitter melon “yards,” peanuts and rice, plus lots of Indian goats, water buffalo and cows. Also saw the Eastern Ghats, a rocky mountain range in this part of India---although I would call them high hills.

Eastern Ghats rice in foreground

Lunch was interesting, at the MGM Grand, no less. Wonder if the MGM Grand knows there's a hotel in Srikalahasti named the MGM Grand, with a lion as their icon? Doubt it. Only thing available was a full South Indian thali tray, which was good, even if spicy hot.

Bus ride, although air conditioned, was torturous, not to mention butt-numbing. Traffic was at times miserable, plus we had to stop at the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to pay taxes based on the number of passengers on the bus...interesting. More torturous though was the fact we had to do it all over again to get back to the hotel.