Epic day in Coimbatore

For my first full day in India, Leah had planned to cram her 4 day tour into one. I didn't realize this until late morning after a whirl wind of visits. Here is the short version of my first day...

7:00am - Visit Organic Farm
After an almost 40 hour travel day, I finally got to bed at about 11:30pm, still buzzing from the sound of the turbine plane engines. Our plan called for us to wake up at about 6:15 and leave at 7:00am. Of course, I awoke at about 4:30am, my body still not sure what it was supposed to do. Another 4 hour night... not what I was hoping for. Still, I felt fine and after resting until 6:00am and then showering, I was ready to get started. We drove about 15min to the farm where we would learn more about the important role of the cow, and all its "by products" in the cycle of the organic farm. We talked about the incredibly harmful effects of pesticides and GM (genetically modified) cotton seeds on the soil and on the environment in general. The whole purpose of Organic farming is to restore the natural balance that chemicals and GM seeds have destroyed over the past 50 years or so. Our first stop provided an excellent base to begin my journey into the world of organic cotton.

8:00am - Breakfast
We returned to our wonderful host's beautiful home. The plan was a quick breakfast with the family before we set off on the rest of our day. Our hosts graciously set the table with forks and spoons for my benefit, even though food is traditionally eaten with hands. They also prepared a "less spicy" version of the food for my sensitive western palate. I was happy to eat the mild dish with my hands.

9:00am - School

Directly across the street from our host was a small private school that was situated on part of the family land that is also occupied by the ginning factory. The school was built and funded by the family trust, and 20% of the children attending the school were sponsored (free tuition) by the trust. The school was clean and airy, and in the first room was about 30 computers. There are 30 children per class, kindergarten to grade 10. The kindergarten is taught Montessori style and the children start there at about age 2. The children were milling about before morning assembly in their crisp uniforms and bright faces. The teachers and principle all greeted us very warmly, proudly showing off their school. We stopped at the gym which contained a 10-12ft wooden pole and a rope hung from the ceiling. We watched as a young boy demonstrated a traditional Indian gymnastics routine on the pole, which appeared to meld gymnastics, yoga in a cirque du soleil type routine. The young girl followed with her routine on the rope. We later learned that this traditional sport had died off for a time and was being revived. Our two demonstrators had recently placed highly at the national competition held at this school. As we prepared to finish our quick tour, the children began to migrate toward the track field for the morning assembly. The children in the kindergarten had their own assembly around the corner from the rest of the children. We watched as the assembly sang brief prayers (non-denominational) of thanks. Next we knew, we were ushered in front of the assembly of 550 children to present awards of a recent competition. This was a surprise, and neither Leah nor I had brought the camera since Leah had taken the tour already! We were announced as honored guests from Canada and the USA. It was quite a surprise and an honor. It was only 9:30am...

9:30am - Visit ginning plant

Next door to the school is the family's ginning facility. This is where the raw cotton is shipped and the seed and waste is separated from the cotton. After a whirlwind tour, we were off to our next stop...

10:00am - Hand looms
We drove for about 10 minutes to a nearby village that specialized in handloomed saris, the beautiful fabric worn by traditional Indian women. In each small home was an intricate hand loom inset into the floor. The family would take turns at the loom, as this is the family's primary income. While one member worked the loom, others spun yarn or cooked the next meal. The intricate designs are "programmed" into cardboard punch cards that dictate which strand of warp (the longitudinal yarn) was up and which was down. The shuttle cock held the weft (yarn that goes across the fabric), which was shot back and forth using a cord pulled by the operator. There is no way that I can do this process justice in a written explanation, or even in a photo...


11:00am - Jet Looms
After another 30 minute drive, we were now in the 21st century at a state of the art looming facility near Coimbatore. We started at the beginning of the weaving process, where individual cones of yarn are fed onto a huge spool to create the warp. Literally thousands of strands of yarn are fed onto these spools which are then again combined to create a final warp spool of 21,000 strands of yarn. The next step is the weaving machines. We entered the building where there were about 50-60 machines humming away. Each machine was using one of the warp spools that we had just seen, plus another cone of yarn (up to 4 at a time) on the side for the weft. The weft was being shot through the warp using some kind of pneumatic (air) jet at a very high speed. This was quite a contrast to the hand looms we had seen only an hour before. Once the fabric has been woven onto large spools, it is then checked for imperfections and folded or rolled to be packaged for shipping. The final product here is grey fabric that needs to be dyed and finished.

Noon - Lunch
So it actually turns out that we completed Leah's four day tour, albeit in fast forward, before lunch. We headed into downtown Coimbatore, had lunch and headed to our next appointment. Altogether, it was an amazing 5 hours. I learned more than I ever knew about cotton farming, ginning and weaving, plus we got to hand out awards at an assembly. What a day! I've got a lot more to learn, but still... for me this is only day 1...