Word: indianism
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COCA, Ecuador — Over the canopy to the south, Ivan, a Quichua Indian, has spotted three macaws in flight. Moments later, binoculars train to a pair of white-throated toucans, and my group murmurs in excitement. The next item noted by our guide Oscar, however, is not a rare bird, deep in the Amazon rainforest: “Over there, the government has authorized a new, private highway from the coast to here...
...noticed a marked decline in the past decade. V.P. Sharma, 48, has been employed as a weaver in the handloom sari industry in Bihar since 1988. He blames the slowdown on women's changing tastes. It is particularly bad for handloom saris - the simple cotton saris that many Indian women used to wear every day. Their plain designs and muted colors have no appeal for women like Rashmi Raniwal, a 22-year-old sales assistant. "Sari?" she says, giggling. "I never wear it casually, only for formal occasions...
...most prized Indian sari styles - Banarasi and Kanjeevaram silks - are also facing new competition. Depending on the intricacy of design, it takes 15 to 30 days to weave one of these saris, which sell for $50 to $60. A Banarasi silk weaver, Abdul Basit Ansari, 37, has been working for the past 20 years weaving these garments, which come from the holy city of Varanasi. "The industry is facing lots of difficulties," he says. "This is primarily because the sale of fake Banarasi saris made in power looms has been picking up and also because of the sale of cheap...
...left today, according to Business Today. Of these 13, only five say they are doing well. Last year, the 13 weavers sold about $12 million worth of saris, down from $40 million in 2004. The best-known sari shops, like Nalli, which has gleaming showrooms in several big Indian cities, have contracts with some Kanjeevaram weaver co-ops, which is helping them hang on. But it isn't enough to stop people from fleeing the profession. In and around Kanchipuram, famous for the Kanjeevaram silk saris that hail from this region, the manpower in the weaving industry has gone down...
...Western formal wear more empowered than her more traditional counterparts," says Kriti Budhiraja, 20, a political science student at Delhi University. And to be fair, the sari industry is not exactly putting up a fight. It's exiting the stage slowly and almost imperceptibly, with the exception perhaps of Indian soap operas, in which every woman is dressed in an impeccably ironed and draped sari while she cooks and schemes against her mother-in-law. Of course, everyone knows that's not real life...