Kalyanikutty is on cloud nine. In the thirty years of her experience as a yarn spinner, she has never been so thrilled. The Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Commission has selected her for the national award for the best yarn spinner of 2012. Kalyanikutty, who hails from a financially-backward family, says the award came as a pleasant surprise.
“I had to pinch myself often to make sure that I was not in a reverie,” she says.
Kalyanikutty, a native of Erumapetty, Thrissur, has been working in the Erumapetty Khadi Production Centre under the Kerala Khadi and Village Industries Association, Avanissery, Ollur, for about 30 years.
Ask her what makes her deserve the award, it is her sincerity towards the job, she says with humility.
“Right from the beginning I have been into spinning. Apart from that I never knew such an award existed as I was completely engulfed in mundane affairs. Hence I did nothing special to win the award other than doing my job as in the past several years.”
According to her, it was the quality of the yarn and the productivity of an artisan per month that were considered as the criteria for the award. “The thin thread we spin is the most qualitative yarn and it was one of the criterion for the award. Secondly, it is the productivity. My work might have met the criterion for the award,” says a happy Kalyanikutty.
“I got a call from somebody saying that I have won an award. That person said that more details would be communicated by correspondence. I still do not know who rang me up. Later that day, I got a call from my company asking me to reach there at the earliest. On reaching there my superiors and my colleagues congratulated me. Then I realised that what I heard over phone wasn’t a joke,” she says.
Kalyanikutty says that her circumstances led her to take up a job at Khadi production centre along with her aunts. “I could not complete my studies as I was not financially stable and I was idling away my time. But that could not be continued for a long time as we were in dire need of money. Hence I decided to join my aunts to work in the Khadi Production Centre at Erumapetty,” says Kalyanikutty.
Kalyanikkuty is so excited over her travel to Delhi to receive the award.
“I have never been to so many places other than visiting temples in Kerala and Kanpur where my daughter lives. I am looking forward to this trip,” says a jubilant Kalyanikutty.
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