GUWAHATI: Can a 'garment' and 'factory of the same' create a treatise on humanity. Quite definitely it can. For that is what, this conversation clearly does. It weaves a garment that crosses borders, male-female dynamics, for violence has no borders; it restricts itself neither to class nor to hierarchy. For when 'domestic' violence whips its lash, anyone or everyone reels under its impact and it penetrates at all levels. Perhaps this is the trajectory that Barkha Barha's play 'Unsewn’ tries to traverse. She says that she tried to 'sew the pieces' of this conversation because ‘she was angry’. But she was not alone another compatriot Federica Ruggieri too stitched parts of this layered garment titled 'the Unsewn'.
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As the narrative unfolds we have a woman invoking ‘Kali', and recreating for her child the powers of Kali. So that she herself can face the trauma of working in a garment factory under a manager who for a lack of a better word can be best described as a 'monster'. The inference of 'Kali', for she too did demolish a monster. For the manager, the ladies working in his factories are akin to the machines, with which they stitch clothes. The narrative draws parallel between abominable conditions in which factories located in third world countries function to ‘war zones’. Labour is cheap and in abundance, so the monsters leashes a reign of terror. Where words like labour unions and labour rights are taboo and women whether menstruating or wanting to use the loo or are very sick have no option but to plead with the manager for some respite. And for the smallest of mistakes or lapses the females working in those factories has to face the harsh actions of the manager which could also turn physical. Where fixed working hours, proper working conditions and proper remuneration 'is a myth’; where the fear of losing the job keeps them going against all odds.
The play 'Unsewn’ symbolically weaves continents and strata of society together to show that women at all levels are vulnerable to violence from their male counterparts even if they financially and otherwise empowered. In fact, women at the lower levels are perhaps better equipped than those at the higher levels to protect themselves against their perpetrators. The way two women in the play, belonging to different continents and to different social strata encounter violence and how they handle it speaks volumes about their resilience which is often mistaken for weakness. The garment that one sews and the other wears brings them closer; and the way they try to help each other, to ward off the violence, is not only heart- warming; but also adds a lot to the weight metaphorically to the narrative. The protagonist in the beginning evokes the blessings of 'Kali' hoping the deity would rescue her; but in the end realises that she herself possess the powers of Kali within her to destroy the monster that threatens them with violence and cruelty. In the midst of it all, the episode of women in factories stitching SOS messages in labels of the garment, in a hope to get rescued, made headlines. It speaks volumes about the levels of inhumanity they must face in their workplaces and at home and how ‘Unsewn' stiches the pieces together need special mention, for perhaps it is time that we understand the dynamics of the factory culture. Can we join hands to improve their conditions is a question perhaps in all audiences’ mind and hearts as they depart?
