On our way to EPIC

Well we've been home now for almost 2 weeks, and have been very busy preparing for our upcoming show in Vancouver, BC this weekend, March 16-18th. (For more info, visit: http://www.epicvancouver.com ) Already India is starting to feel a bit like a dream, a wonderful, busy, rich and noisy dream, filled with truly amazing people. Although I really feel like the best part of traveling is coming home and seeing it with new eyes, I do miss the people we met there, and feel very blessed to have met and spent time with them. (To anyone who has any desire to go to India, I would definitely recommend it.) And now here we are, back at home, continuing on with our business of promoting naturally dyed organic cotton textiles.

What a great trip!

Well, we are officially on our way home. We are currently in London for a quick day trip and some sight seeing. No time for Stonehenge, but we are heading over to the Victoria & Albert Museum this morning before we head back to Heathrow for our flight to Seattle this evening. We wish we had more time to look around in London, but at the same time we are both excited to head home to our friends and families.

Our trip to India has been a huge success. The people we met on the trip were fantastic and amazing hosts! We had the privilege to spend time with their families and to learn more about the Indian culture. It was great to be immersed in it. We certainly saw real Indian life, ate real Indian food (lots of it) and had a real Indian good time. The people we met on this trip have truly made it a success.

To those we met and spent time with in India, thank you. We had a great time and we hope to return soon.

Homeward bound!

Ok so its not actually until tomorrow evening that we will be starting the journey home, but I'm just ready to say "Homeward bound". I am so excited to be heading home! Tomorrow night (which is the 26th here) we will fly to Mumbai, spend the evening there, then the following day we fly from Mumbai to London. Paul has arranged our tickets so that we have an overnight in London before flying the following day to Seattle. This way we will have a chance to go into London (okay so maybe I could've visited London last time instead of sleeping at the airport if I were as super-keen as Paul!) In London we will try to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum of Applied Arts. And eat anything but Indian food. We will leave London around 4pm on wednesday the 28th, and will arrive in Seattle around 5pm the same day in local time. That will be the longest one hour ever! If we don't get a chance to write before we arrive home, our next post should be on wednesday evening the 28th. Until then!

4 more days!

Well now we only have 4 days to go, and I don't think I could eat another masala dosa. Certainly not another aloo gobi (potato cauliflower in spicy gravy sauce.) I am so much looking forward to eating a fresh crisp salad with apples and goat cheese. Paul really wants a cheeseburger. This is the longest he's ever gone without eating meat! (Oh my, we'll have to change that.) 4 more days, still a busy time to go... I will be checking out some hand quilting, machine quilting, and other stitchery, while Paul will be strategizing and making graphs and spreadsheets and other businessy type stuff. We may both need a vacation after this!

A few corrections...(by Leah)

Here are a few corrections from previous entries that I thought I'd post in one go...

1. India's birthday is actually Independence Day (August 15th,) not Republic Day (January 26th.) Oops.

2. There actually ARE traffic lights in Ahmedabad, but they have only been here for the past year or two, and so they seem to be largely ignored. (Which is why I hadn't noticed them I guess!)

3. Organic cotton may not be that likely to replace conventional cotton farming within 20 years time. This was one very hopeful perspective (which we liked very much!) but after further enquiry, it seems that it may not be that accurate of a projection. Although organic farming clearly looks better in the long term than conventional farming does, it also requires more commitment, attention, observation, care, and manual labour in order to work, as well as a transitional period that can be a difficult gap to pass through. This effort and level of commitment may not be that attractive to all farmers, especially the large-scale farms. We'll see about those 20 years...

4. I can't take the credit for the "master-planning" of this trip- the planning for these two weeks while Paul is here was done mostly by our hosts in Ahmedabad, as well as their contacts with whom we've met. It's so nice that Paul thinks I could pull that off though!

The entire process - a pictorial

Well, its official. We have seen every step in the chain from Organic cotton farming through to Stitching. Here is a quick snapshot of each stage, all of which we have seen in the past week first hand. Amazing.

Organic Cotton Farming


Cotton Ginning


Spinning


Traditional Weaving


Mechanical Weaving


Mechanical Knitting


Chemical Dyeing (We will never, ever do this!)


Natural Dyeing


Screen Printing


Cutting


Stitching


All of these photos and more are on our Picasa Web album.

Photos, lots of 'em

Here is a link to our web album where we are collecting a selection of our best photos from the trip. Check back every once in a while for new additions...

http://picasaweb.google.com/paularonw/TenfoldGoesToIndia02