My name is Bhilal Khatri. I live in Khavda village which is 70km north of Bhuj. I come from the Khatri community who are making Ajrakh (Traditional Block printed fabric used for Turban, Lungi, Shawl and many other practical uses) for generations in Sindh, Kutch and Rajasthan. My father Indhris Khatri and uncle Haji Kasam and Rajakbhai taught me the craft of Ajrakh printing and dyeing which has been in our family for at least the last 7 generations.
Once upon a time Khavda was business centre when Kutch and Sindh were not divided between India and Pakistan. Today there are only 3 families left who are printing Ajrakh. Even though Ajrakh block printing is very famous craft of Kutch, unfortunately not many people know about us.
In the year 2010, I met Kuldip Gadhvi, who came along with Ruth Clifford as a guide and they did an interview about our family history and our traditional Ajrakh block printing. Gradually he started visiting us more often on his tours and became a very good family friend who is generously sharing new ideas, bringing visitors to our work place, allowing us to experiment new designs and more than anything encouraging us to bring back Natural Dyes in Ajrakh which we had stopped using for 2 generations.
We are stuck with wholesalers without whom we couldn't have carried on our craft, but at the same time it's the only market we know and the only products that we've been making. We always wanted to create a new product, new design but didn't have the opportunity until we came to know about UAK. It seems a great project and we're proud to be part of it. We have been using power loom fabrics until now but we're going back to hand woven fabrics that are not only cherished by our customers but also supports local weavers of Kutch. And the good news is that finally after 2 generations, we have started producing Ajrakh with Natural Dyes and we are very excited about it.
Please check my family collection under the tab "Products" and if you are ever in Khavda village, please come and visit us.
