All about the Gamcha

That red thing that hangs on my balcony . .it’s called a “gamcha!”

Gamcha caught my attention in Amitava Ghosh’s  The hungry tide.  It also remains in the frame of many of my favorite movies! There is something that connects me to it in an unknown strange way. Of all the bombay deyings and Home store stuff I can have at home, I use a Gamcha! Sometimes I also wonder why? My recent trip to Kolkata will remain one of my most memorable trips not just because of the mesmerizing Puja Experience but because of these little things that remain etched in me forever.

One major component of my trip was Gamcha!

I saw it swaying to the whispering winds atop the rustic balcony of a few mystic old buildings. It was like it was trying to whisper the secrets of that household to the winds, which is very inquisitive. The fights, the love, the struggles and the drama that defines that home, its culture, fluttering away in a gamcha!

The voluptuous women walk into the terrace with a gamcha in hand, trying to dry their hair! As they sunbathe looking at the empty road as if, waiting for their love to come walking. Some wipe away their tears, their sorrows or the memories of that long lost love!

Gamchas on the cycle rickshaw pullers neck! Sucking his sweat away and giving him that warmth and caress he needs! His companion on a hard day’s work!

Gamchas torn and used to hold the chai container on the road side chai adda! This gamcha, listening to the simmering political argument as it protects its master’s hands from burning . . .

Gamchas on the road side shops, as well as the big shops! Everyone needs them! Class doesn't matter and yes, old ones go and new ones are always purchased! So the market is always there for a gamcha!

Gamcha covering all the vessels in the Durga pendal and a gamcha fan used as an aarti for Puja! The gods also adore this fabric!

It’s not a piece of cloth! It’s a cultural statement. It’s a story and a song.

I have brought back with me a bit of that culture, few stories from the land of Durga and a few moments from that precious trip that will always flutter in my balcony in the form of a Gamcha!