Making a Lasting Impression with Devotion: Madhusudan Chobe
26 August 2024: At 88 Years of Age, Printing Industry Veteran Madhusudan Chobe Shares Perspectives on Being Passionate About Printing the 150 ft x12 ft Marbat (Devi) Saree, Weighing 50 kg, Which is Being Done by his Family from the last 35 Years.
Even today, we continue to uphold a family privilege that has its origins in a 135-year-old tradition and festival specific to Nagpur. Black and yellow effigies called piwli (yellow) and kaali (black) marbat are taken on a 10-km procession through the lanes of Itwari and East Nagpur and then burnt. It is believed that with the burning of these effigies, all negativity is burnt away.
Our family is honoured to print the saree for yellow marbat; it is a 150 ft x 12 ft saree, weighing 50 kg. and we have been doing this for the last 35 years.
My son Rajesh designs the saree about 2-3 months in advance and then it gets approved by me. On getting the blank saree from the yellow marbat committee, we start preparations for screen printing it. The day we plan to commence printing, in the morning we first do prayers (pooja). Then, I print the first impression of the saree followed by my two sons, Rajesh and Shailesh. it is a 7-8 hours job as it takes 500 impressions to complete the saree printing.
For us, this responsibility is an honour and a privilege. It is a way of conveying our devotion and respect to God through the process of screen printing this sacred saree. It is not a commercial print job but an offering from our heart and soul. We use screens of 6 ft. x 2 ft. for this and our entire family gets involved in the saree printing work. Our family has been entrusted with the responsibility of this saree printing from the last 35 years, which is indeed the ultimate accolade for us.
Born in 1936 in a farmer’s family at village Panchgaon near Nagpur, I completed my basic education from Nagpur. Later I completed G.D. Art from J. J. School of Arts, Mumbai. I gained insights into screen printing training from Prof. Kailash Takle at J. J. School of Arts and also served as a lecturer for Printing and Packaging at Printing Technology Institute.
I started teaching at the first screen printing training centre in India during the year 1975. During my journey of 45 years of screen printing, though it is difficult to put into numbers, but I have managed to have trained over 12,000 students and adults.
Shailesh Shailesh Chobe (98504 53999), chobescreen@gmail.com
