Fish bone adds shine to Ponduru khadi

Srikakulam: Among all the varieties of khadi in the nation, Ponduru does not need special mention. No less a person than former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was attracted to the charms of these cottons.

Offered to former president of America, Bill Clinton as a gift, and ordered by veteran cine actor Akkineni Nageswar Rao with a special indent, Ponduru Khadi is well known for its shine and sheen.

One would be surprised to know that the one most important factor that is responsible for the quality of these handlooms is none other than a fish bone. It is used to clean the cotton, giving it a particular shine that is not lost even after the whole process of weaving.

It can be said of the handloom workers here that they are highly skilled in spinning colourful threads from a special variety of cotton and weave quality cloth. Thousands of them depend on this lucrative industry.

In the nine-phased ritual starting from cleaning the cotton to making the threads, the use of the fish bone in cleaning is said to be the main reason for the quality of the cloth. Fish bone is what turns the cotton to soft and silky, it is said. But not any type of fish bone is used for the cleaning.

The upper and lower jaws of the Valugu sea fish is removed and the resulting bone is thoroughly cleaned. Then it is dried in the sun. It is broken into four pieces, before being used as the tool to clean the cotton. To hold it conveniently it is tied to a stick and placed in such a manner so that it does not move.

Then it is used to remove the cotton from the seed and cleaned. With this cotton is not only cleaned thoroughly it also gets a shine that does not fade.

The national standard 100 count fine khadi that is exported from here is the product of this rather inconspicuous fish bone, say the weavers.
Ponduru khadi stands out proudly among the 2,000 and odd certified khadi centres in the country. Despite substantive orders, they are unable to meet the targeted exports because of the shortage of this fish bone, the handloom workers revealed.

Earlier, they used to get this fish bone from Eluru and Dowaleswaram. But because the particular fish is not available now in these areas, they are going all the way to Bhubaneswar and Cuttack regions in Odisha district, they said. They used to purchase it for Rs 20 each.

But now it costs anywhere between Rs 50 to Rs 100. They used other methods of cleaning for some time due to shortage of this fish bone. As there was a difference in the quality, they stopped these methods.

Notably, for the kinds of cotton available in Srikakulam district like the Kondapathi, Unasapathi and Yerrapathi, only this fish bone is suitable for cleaning.

Hence it is being preserved carefully and used as an important tool. Among the 40 villages under the Ponduru Khadi Society, some 1500 women who are involved in cleaning the cotton use the fish bone, stressing on the importance of this tool.