Stitching A Tale

In Nagaon’s Dagaon village in Assam, you will find many women who know how to sew the kheta, a handmade recycled quilt.

- Nasreen Habib

When you enter Dagaon, one of the nine villages that make up Nagaon district in Assam, you are welcomed by a gurgling river, Kolong which swells in the monsoon but is dry now. A wooden bridge painted in a solemn black is the only connect with the outside world. Further ahead is the bustling Erabari bazaar, where engulfed in a cloud of dust, irregular shops line the way. The shops have tin roofs and sturdy bamboo shutters, and mostly sell everyday items of use: utensils, medicines, clothes, the bazaar even has a mobile repairing shop. But it does not, however, sell what the women of the village sew: embroidered blankets that keep you warm in the winter and on unseasonably cold monsoon days. For in every household, you will find a woman who knows how to sew the kheta, a handmade recycled quilt.