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Journalism of Courage
Wendell Rodricks on ensemble pano bhaju that hides in its threads the story of Goa
Bringing together textiles and text is not easy. But “Mantles of Myth: The Narrative in Indian Textiles”, a three-day literary festival organised by Siyahi at Jaipur, did it with much panache. Sociologists and economists, craftspeople and artists, fashion designers and authors came together in an unusual quilting bee session. Devdutt Pattanaik brought alive the mythology of the cloth; Mallika Sarabhai danced out the story of Kalamkari; Meghnad Desai and Dipankar Gupta talked about Narratives of a Nation; and Ritu Kumar bored with a film on the Tree of Life. And amid all the hullabaloo associated with a typical Diggi Palace festival, designer Wendell Rodricks talked of a personal journey — of going home and searching for an old Goan ensemble, the pano bhaju.
In 1993, Rodricks left Mumbai for Colvale village in north Goa, leaving the big city’s glitterati to arch their eyebrows in wonder. “I was returning to my roots to create clothes that were to become my identity,” said Rodricks. “Then the cartoonist Mario Miranda, who was working on a book on Goa, suggested that I look into the pano bhaju.” And he began a long journey — from Goa to the museums of Europe and back again.
Rodricks, who presented a paper on Pano Bhaju: The Story from Goa, said the dress was an original Goan outfit comprising of a pleated wrap over the skirt, which is called the pano, and a long embroidered blouse called the bhaju — and in their warp and weft is the story of the land. “Before the Portuguese conquered Goa, it was a very different place. Hindus and Muslims lived there but everything changed with the arrival of the Portuguese. Apart from having to give up their religion, they also had to give up their attire,” said Rodricks. The Goans began to wear unsuitable European outfits in the sweltering summer of Goa, but soon they ingeniously developed the pano bhaju. “They took the blouse and paired it with a pleated skirt that resembled a sari and draped a stole around their shoulders,” said Rodricks, who admitted to blending elements of the ensemble in his own designs over the years. “If you think of it, it was actually one of the original fusion outfits that emerged at the time.” History perhaps never looked so stylish.
