Weaving stories of ‘hope’ – Sneha Ravishankar


Sneha Ravishankar is a textile designer and an educator and would cringe on reading this as she does not like to be slotted and defined by terminologies.
But Sneha is a warm, open, empathetic human being who is making each moment of the lockdown count – by doing what she can in her capacity – not just as a designer, but as a decent human being.

At the beginning of the lockdown, she began working on the donation drive for the migrant workers, and making sure people around her were feeling alright. But as days advanced and the situation started getting grimmer, she began receiving many phone calls from students of the design colleges where she teaches. She realized that there was a need to pro-actively reach out to more people – just to talk, to make sure they were coping.
Hence, she started offering online weaving classes – her fees, she said, “feed a needy family, or feed some stray animals on the road for a week”
And thus began, an exciting, moving and motivating journey of making bonds of a lifetime. 


She’s working with an eclectic bunch of people right now. An army officer, a school teacher, a design student and her mother, some design professionals and many more from across the country.
The beauty of online classes is that she is able to reach out to a wide spectrum of people, making bonds with people she has never met and may never meet personally – but they all feel so close now.

  

“We had forgotten how to see each other – other human, other species of animals, nature – but now, with the lockdown, I see an opportunity for people of reconnect, to appreciate – to see each other, and even inanimate objects that are personal to them.”, she says.
The weaving itself is quite therapeutic – because it engages full attention of a person, that allows them to leave behind stress and anxieties of the current times. It also becomes a bonding exercise within the family, as she sees the whole family participate, offering ideas for materials, translating instructions. Three generations coming together with a ball of yarn, or strips of newspaper. A student who started appropriating corners of her house, windows, nooks and crannies for weaving now feels a closer bond with her home she is locked down in . Hence, through her weaving classes, she is providing opportunities for connecting, for conversation and for coping.



The classes are free, the fees only being a voluntary effort to feed a family or stray animals around. Thereby she is ensuring her students are directly involved in the act of giving – and this giving, she knows from experience is a very impactful life-changing engagement.

A student couple has now taken upon themselves to teach what they learn from her to their immediate community around. They are making paper bags and offering them to grocery stores to swap instead of plastic ones. She would be happy to take her designs and skills to many more communities, to help them sustain themselves in these tough times. A strong believer in sharing knowledge, and being open and forthright about her ideas and opinions, Sneha becomes a beacon for her students, adolescents who are dealing with issues of identity and self-worth.


She is also very vocal about the limitations that she feels we impose on ourselves by calling ourselves designers. In the current context, can we find ways to make an impact as designers? Even helping the neighbourhood essentials store to reconfigure their systems is an act of design intervention.
Why are we so limited in our thinking, why do we expect so little from ourselves? Why do we need to bind ourselves to traditional definitions of designers, that dictate what we can and cannot do? Who should really be determining what role we play in the society today, and the society of tomorrow? Would conforming to the staus quo get us there? She muses over some profound questions, and raises the same in her weaving sessions with her students.

Her classes are a riot of laughter, and easy-going banter. She infects people with her enthusiasm. And gives absolute attention to each one on her screen, weaving, talking, reaching out – ensuring their wellbeing above all else.

If you want to take up weaving, or need to talk to someone, sign up for her classes. If you want to bond with your friends or family, take up a group session, or try to sign up for a group session with strangers – maybe you will make serendipitous bonds and meaningful connections.  

Connect with Sneha at
https://www.instagram.com/12paws_and_counting/?hl=en
or email her at sneharavishankar.design@gmail.com


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