In many villages of Rajasthan and across India, sustainability fits into the rhythm of everyday life rather than being shaped by a choice. Women often build their world through what is available. What can be repaired, and what can be made to last. Their homes, the chores and even the textiles around them follow a logic of re-use that functions more sustainably than most structured systems ever can.

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The Paidaan, a hand-knitted mat made from discarded sarees captures this way of life. Young girls learn to loop and knot from their grandmothers early on, transforming torn sarees into mats that adorn their doorways, kitchen floors and courtyards. Most times, it is made as a sentimental exchange between households living in shared communities.The same textile might first be worn, then torn, then turned into a wall hanging and then finally reappear as a mat under one’s feet. In the huts of Bikaner, bright cloth scraps are stitched into wall adornments to be later cut and made into something else ; nothing stays in its original form for too long.

Yet, it is the contrast that sits alongside this instinctive sustainability. Many of these women are makers of exquisite hand-knotted rugs that are globally celebrated for their slow craft, natural materials and ethical values while they travel far and enter homes where sustainability at large is a conscious choice. These are women who are often able to afford only synthetic factory-made textiles that carry large repercussions.

The paradox ; their lifestyle is sustainable by necessity, their work is sustainable by craft but their access to sustainable products at large is limited by affordability. Paidaan is a reflection of how traditional practices of reuse coexist with the ideas of sustainability that shift depending on where one stands.

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This series is a brief study that revolves between what is made, what is worn, what is valued, and what sustains as a community, through time.