- Dr. Ashwani Sharma
While working on small pieces of square cloth in the art and craft class at school where she first learnt the embroidery technique of Chamba rumal, Lalita Vakil then only a teenager, did not know that she would be winning a Padma Shri one day for her craftsmanship in ancient Himalayan embroidery. She has been practising the craft for five decades.Chamba rumal (handkerchief)is a 17th-century art promoted primarily by women of Chamba’s royal family for dowries as an important gift, was also a dying art, though a fascinating miniature work on the fabric.“I was married at 15 and this proved to be a blessing in disguise for me as my husband was associated with Sir JJ School of Art, Bombay. My dreams found wings as I decided to take this art form to a new height, as I look back at my 50 years’ journey with chamba rumal,” says Lalita Valik, who has been awarded the prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ for taking this traditional art form to great heights.
Lalita recalls how her father-in-law, a native of Chamba, recognised her latent and intricate designs on chamba rumal and told her to train local girls and women, who could also make their livelihoods from embroidery. This had also helped her in the drive to revive the dying art.“I used to bring home local girls, train them to get paid small incentives of Rs 10 or 15 per month from the Chamba Deputy Commissioner. There was no other support for such efforts. Yet through this effort, I managed to create a wider network of trained girls, who gradually mastered the art of making chamba rumals,in all forms of designs and embroidery works” she told Wise Himachal.
