Bodhi returns to Chennai with lockdown-inspired motifs

In one of the latest collections of Bodhi, by fashion designer Mala Sinha, a sari stands out. Trudging along the rim of its pallu is a young girl on a cycle, her braid flying with the wind, her father seated pillion. The breezy motif can in no way be called grim, yet it pays tribute to one of the most haunting images of India’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Mala calls the design Babuji Ki Bitiya: it is a hat tip to the girl who had to cycle hundreds of kilometres from Gurgaon to her home in Bihar, with her ailing father. It is one of the more poignant components of her Corona Collection, “which also features some tongue-in-cheek patterns, translated using wooden blocks onto fabric,” she says over a phone call.

Mala Sinha is by no means the only creative mind to have been influenced by the pandemic, but it does take on a bit more significance than most others: her clientele comprises the country’s power corridors in Delhi.

Playful still

The patterns of Bodhi’s Corona Collection range from multi-coloured faces with masks, to animals gallivanting across bright broad borders of saris and stoles.

“This was inspired by how much Nature managed to reclaim when we went into lockdown; it was their turn to cage us all,” she laughs.

And then there is the Bodhi Reborn capsule, born out of a more urgent need earlier in the pandemic — a need to provide gainful employment for her team at a time when both the supply of raw material and the demand for fashion was limited. As Mala points out: “Situations like these strongly affect people who work with their hands; for we come to mind only when people are in a good place, when there is no tragedy. Why would they think of us while they are suffering?”

And yet, incomes had to be sustained and households had to be supported by her team of artists and printers, who are predominantly women. That, says Mala, is when her Bodhi Reborn collection came to be. “Like many others, we began making masks, but all we had were scraps of material left behind over the years. Most of these scraps were already dyed and printed; we further died them in haldi (turmeric) so they would not affect anyone’s skin adversely,” says Mala. She adds, “We also created laptop sleeves, pouches and other things with them. You will never find a second piece in this collection, mainly because I cannot find the same scrap of fabric again,” she laughs.

The exhibition will be held from January 4 to 10 at Amethyst, Royapettah.