A famous folk song,"O iccha kare parandare gamchha dia bandhi" (How I wished I could tie up my soul with gamchha!) has immortalised the indigenous version of towel. While towel is thick and heavier, gamchha/gamuchha/ gamochha is a thin and lightweight rectangular sheet of garment. Scarf-like, this piece of cotton cloth is simply indispensable for farmers. Upper class and educated people have a natural preference for towel which has its origin in Turkey. However, gamchha appears to have its origin in the hoary past. At least the Oriya Mahabharata has got its mention. If this is true, today's towel dates back only to the 17th or 18th centuries.
However both gamchha and towel are meant to serve the same purpose. Primarily used for rubbing or wiping body dry after a soulful or casual bath, these bath robes seem to have followed the rules of weather well. In chilly weather a towel is better suited but in tropical countries gamchha has no rival. And has anyone in the Western culture ever ventured to tie up his/her soul with a towel? If that has not happened, Turkish hamam is, however, inconceivable without a piece of towel.
Gamchha has figured in poetry or novel in this part of the world in myriad ways. Rabindranath's small river full of human activities is not complete without the mention of gamchha. Tired protagonists lie on this piece of cloth under a tree and people used to carry their chira, muri or gur (flattened rice, puffed rice, solid molasses) in a bundle tied on one end of their gamchha. Even they carried home their small grocery supplies in such a gamchha bundle. Now all this has changed and polythene, nylon or other bags made of artificial fibres have taken over.
If gamchha still enjoys a thriving business for practical reasons, some have taken a crusade in its favour to a crazy height. Celebrated model and fashion designer Bibi Russel once made gamchha a trade mark of her shows. A brave freedom fighter and a politician has also made it his symbol of politics, albeit it smacks of a little exhibitionism. Whether such attempts have inspired people around the world to use gamchha is not known but at least this piece of colourful cloth available mostly in stripe or check forms has become widely known abroad.
Then some not so famous mortals advertise their love for gamchha in a bizarre way. A young man educated in English medium once surprised the editorial staff of a newspaper when he entered with a gamchha wrapped round his neck. He spoke English fluently but was not averse to using the handy cloth millions of farmers and menial labourers in this part of the world feel comfortable to tie round their heads or wear as a loin cloth. A perfectly sane man in fatua (a kind of half shirt without collar) made of gamcha may cause eyebrows to raise but he seemed not in the least perturbed. Another person went straight for a shirt that has the two anchals (edges) as half sleeves. This man standing right in front of the Aziz Super Market near Shahbag was himself a quaint advertisement of gamchha. So this article of bath robe of the sub-continent is poised to break a new ground for itself. But will this fad ever gain popularity?
Whether that happens or not and the elite's unease with it notwithstanding, gamchha certainly has many advantages over towel. It takes a small space to carry. On a hectic tour, it gives the pleasure of rinsing and wiping wet body and takes almost no time to dry up to be luggage-fit for the next destination.   Â
In praise of \\\'gamchha\\\'
Neil Ray | Published: June 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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