: A four-day exhibition of koudis , stitched by 70-year-old Gangubai Desai, opened at the Kalashree Gallery in Vidya Nagar in Hassan on Wednesday. The dying art of koudi making involves stitching discarded as well as new cloth in different patterns to give it artistic shapes. Gangubai Desai is among the very few koudi practitioners of the State.
Ms. Desai, speaking to The Hindu , said she picked up the art when she was a 15-year-old in Basavana Bagewadi, her home town in Vijayapura district. Since then, she says she must have stitched over 400 koudis of different sizes and shapes.
“ Koudis of a bigger size require months of hard work. I have spent six months to stitch one koudi . Smaller ones require a few weeks,” she said. Her artworks have been exhibited in different places, including the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath in Bengaluru, the Janapada Loka near Ramanagaram, and Hassan.
Ms. Desai has been the inspiration for her son, B.S.Desai, also a noted artist who has exhibited his paintings all over the world. Mr. Desai, who teaches in a government school, has taught painting to hundreds of children in Hassan. Hassan Superintendent of Police R.K. Shahapurwad inaugurated the exhibition. Vice President of the Karnataka State Working Journalists Association Shivanand Tagadur and others participated in the event. The exhibition will be open for the public till October 23.
