Pochampalli Sari

I visited Pochampally in July last year and was touched to see the lives of people living in this village revolving around their looms and how liberalisation had hit the community of poor weavers.
I was told this story by a village elder: An annual ritual in the leafy village of Pochampally has come to a tragic abrupt end. Every year on Ramnavami day, Pochampally’s finest weaver Ch Ramalingam would load a miniature loom on his bullock cart and weave a sari on his way to the temple from his hutment. This sari would then be draped around the deity amidst cheering and festivities. Ramalingam passed away in 2003. And, the tradition of draping the goddess in a freshly woven Pochampally sari every year ended with Ramalingam’s life.
In this picture Ramalingam's son is seen with a three-sided sari, a special sari woven by his father on his humble equipment__the loom.