Helen's Travel Diary - Stitching Tracks in India

The next installment from Helen Hazon's travel journal in India. Helen has a keen interest in all things textile related. She is a lifelong stitcher, currently enjoying quilting and embroidery but always keen to learn new skills. During the last fifteen years Helen has travelled extensively around the world and has visited many areas of India - twelve visits in total mostly under Amit’s expert guidance.

In early 2020 we joined the first Stitching Tracks tour, led of course by Amit and accompanied by textile expert Pat Archibald. The title of the tour was enticing – promising lots of textile interest plus several train journeys. Amit’s itinerary delivered all of this plus so much more!

In Kolkata we took a tram ride through the city and saw lots of historic buildings relating to the time of the British Raj. Next, the beautiful flower market near the river and finally an evening river cruise to see important bridges and observe daily life beside the river. This part of India is the home of a stitching technique called kantha. We were introduced to this and led though a workshop in which we could each try to learn a new skill. The ladies teaching us were very kind and patient as they gently guided our efforts.

The second city we visited was Varanasi – formerly called Benares. This ancient place stands beside the river Ganges and has huge significance to Hindu people and to Buddhists. We witnessed aspects of the Hindu worship of the Ganges – a dawn boat ride on the river to see early morning devotions and to float our own prayer candles, a walk along the ghats (riverside steps) to see the sites for ritual funeral pyres and finally an evening at the daily Aarti ceremony on the banks of the river. All these experiences were fascinating and really showed us how the Ganges is so important in the Hindu faith. Next day we visited sites in Varanasi that are of importance in the Buddhist religion. These included the place where Buddha delivered his first sermon to his followers after his enlightenment – now a serious pilgrimage site – very peaceful despite the surrounding traffic. The city of Varanasi is famous for its silk fabrics and we visited weaving premises to find out more about this traditional industry. The colours and designs were amazing and the finished products were so beautiful that we were tempted to purchase small pieces.

The first of our scheduled train journeys took us next day on a fascinating five hour journey North West to Lucknow. Several of us used the time on the train to work on hand stitching projects – I knitted a sock. On a tour of Lucknow we again saw some impressive buildings from the time of the Raj and others of religious importance. On day two we visited a ladies’ sewing co-operative where we were shown the local embroidery speciality called chikankari and provided with materials and guidance so that we could learn the basics of this beautiful technique. What a lovely visit that was, ending with the two groups singing to each other!

All of these wonderful events happened in the first nine days of our tour. Sadly on day ten we had to leave India and return to the UK because of the Covid19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdown rules. Amit and his team were very efficient and organised our rapid departure perfectly.

The next Stitching Tracks tour is planned for February 2027. Its itinerary promises just as much as the first one and I’m certainly looking forward to experiencing these things again, especially to completing the final seven days of the tour which I’m sure will be just as amazing.