Action 11: Ralli- Connect & Mix

“Hum ghar bana rahain hain” (We are making a house), exclaimed Amna, Aisha and Hamza as their tiny fingers circled through the wet sand and shaped out a square structure they called home. These kids belong to jhuggis situated near Emporium Mall Lahore, while the term jhuggi can be loosely translated into “shanty clusters.

People adopt different migration patterns and carry various reasons for settlement. The jhuggis at the Emporium Mall site aptly showed this, as they comprised a mix of people and communities, one of whom was Mussarat. Mussarat had moved into the Emporium Mall site a mere two months ago and was previously living in a middle-class home as a caretaker. She was born and bred in south Punjab, and these jhuggis were not customary of her lifestyle. In her teenage, she had lived in someone’s home as a domestic worker, where she had learnt traces of verbal English and near-perfect verbal Urdu. While seeking domestic work was common in these setups, not everyone possessed Mussarat’s linguistic abilities and history of residence within employers’ homes. Amid the pandemic, Mussarat was finding it hard to find any full-time jobs, so she had to get creative to earn money for her day to day expenses. As a young girl, Mussarat was taught how to make Ralli quilts by her grandmother. These quilts are a visual feast of colour, pattern and energy. The quilts are called “rilli” (or ralli, rilly, rallee and rehli) derived from the local word ralanna, meaning to mix or connect. Rillis are usually made by women of rural villages, nomadic tribes and settled towns. 

Ralli is made from scraps of cotton fabric hand dyed to the desired colour. According to Indus craft website a typical rilli is about seven by four or five feet. Much of the fabric comes from old, worn shalwar kameez (traditional loose shirt and pant outfits). The most common colours in rillis are white, black, red, yellow, orange, green, dark blue and purple. However, there are some unique regional and tribal color palettes. For the bottoms of the rillis, the women often use old pieces of tie-dye, ajrak (red and blue block printed material) or other shawl fabric.

As I stand outside the mall in parking, waiting for my friend to pick me up, I accidentally start a conversation with Mussarat, who was also waiting for the Rickshaw (tuk-tuk). Within 10 minutes of knowing each other, she invited me to her Jhuggi for chai (tea), and I agreed. After walking for a few minutes, we reach the jhuggi settlement where kids are playing and running around freely; she leads the way to her small jhuggi. As we enter everywhere, there are loose pieces of fabric on the ground. Quickly she starts gathering them up and apologizes to me for the mess; after a good 30-minute conversation, I ask her if she was making Ralli earlier. She nodes and offers me if I want to see how it’s made. I quickly agree to her offer and sit down on the ground with her as she starts stitching two pieces of fabric together. Eventually, both of us (mostly by Musarat) stitch a small piece (around 24 cm)of Ralli together. During this process, Musarat and I connected on a whole new level.

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