I have spent all my life working on the loom. I used to weave cotton blankets, but now I weave woollen blankets. Everyone used to work on cotton earlier. It was my own initiative to start weaving woollen blankets. The wool is divided proportionally and the pattern is formed on the blanket in the same proportion. We lay the warp here at home, and then I weave the weft on the loom. Warp beam, heddles, harness shuttle, reed and take-up roll are the components of this loom. I use these shuttles to weave the multi-coloured wool across the warp, and I use the batten to settle the weave.

The cost depends on the type of wool used, anywhere between INR 200 to 400 per kilogram. One blanket requires one and a half or two kg of wool. It costs less if worn-out wool is used. My weaving fee is INR 250. It can take from two days to two months to finish one blanket. It depends on the effort one can spare. Earlier, I could finish it in one and a half days. Nowadays it takes more time; even if I weave continuously, it still takes three days.

This new loom in my new house is my own creation. I explained and my son made it. I can also sew and I charge INR 120 per suit, but I find weaving more enjoyable. People are not that excited to get a new suit. When I stitch a suit, I take time out to work on the blankets. I have weaved innumerable blankets and people like them a lot. The old sarpanch wanted to get a new blanket. He wondered how these shuttles and battens would make a blanket. But when I gave him the finished product, he was very happy. He gave me an award of INR 100.

I worked on a dhaba for six months. I cooked food and rotis and I made INR 5000 a month there. It was just an impulse to try to work like that too. The dhaba did not make profits and was shut down. I have been weaving ever since.

I experienced happiness only when I was young. Now that I am old, I have to deal with miseries. I started weaving when I was young because it was interesting. It was not about money, I just could not sit idle. I learnt to weave from my mother. When I was little, I would start working on her loom. She would tell me not to ruin it but I insisted on learning it.

I was married when I was 18. I came of age after I moved in with my in-laws. The resources were scarce and the family was big. So I started sewing clothes and weaving cotton shawls and woollen blankets. I am 70 years old now; the father of my sons has worked a lot too. I get an old-age pension now.