Push of the pishvi

This is Ritwik Bhattacharyarsquos baby and I back and support him and Kalote Animal Trust KAT is my baby where he backs merdquo And the newly bornmdashand connecting siblingmdashto these two babies is Piarsquos Faux The vegan bag linersquos first range was launched on Mahashivratri March 9The day is important The selfdesigned prominent trishul in gold hovers over the brandrsquos creator model Pia Trivedirsquos feted clavicle Itrsquos also on the logo on the bags sprouting from the letter P ldquoPowered by Shivardquo she says Wersquore sitting on the terrace at START Squash temple and rhythm training Academy in KaloteMokashi village about two hours from Mumbai overlooking a glass squash court buzzing with sunsoaked children and teenagers It is the brainchild of her squash champion spouseCloseby is KAT founded by Sameer Vohra and cosupported by Trivedi over the years in many ways to which now the proceeds from Piarsquos Faux will flow ldquoI first met Sameer when he ran a shelter in Lonavalardquo says Trivedi her mane of curly hair still wearing a trademark lock of blonde ldquoUnlike other shelters what stood out was that the animals roamed free and looked healthy whereas Sameer was always scrawny Once I asked if I could bring some food to feed a horse and he handed me a roti from his plate I asked him if we could work together if our ethics matchedrdquoKAT homes goats dogs cats cows and bulls and horses retired from the racecourse Many of the large animalsmdasheven thoroughbreds with their rich shades of brownmdashwould be headed to the leather industry So the realisation that ldquoyou donrsquot have to kill an animal to make a fivelakhrupee bagrdquo wasnrsquot too far We speak of a Balenciaga which was a favourite till it wasnrsquot and of a millionaire matriarch with a preference for bags made from the skin of freshlyhatched crocodiles ldquoI never bought leatherrdquo says the onetime VJ ldquoI would be gifted leather bags as a model but never bought onerdquoThis line of 12 modelsmdashclutches waist pouches duffle bag backpack sling bagsmdashare made of rexine and canvas The viability of cactus leather is being explored for the next collection The bags are made in a unit in Noida and currently only 10 pieces were made for each model ldquoI didnrsquot want to fall on my face nor shout from the hill toprdquo she says ldquoThough larger production would mean more funds for KATrdquoThe bags are modelled by the village children who selfconfessedly spend ldquo20 out of 24 hours in a day at STARTrdquo There is a concern Fashion is accused of being tone deaf and more than one European luxury brand has been accused of fetishising poverty and indigenous people by using them as props to model the products or as background for campaign More notable these are not people who would share a realm with the product otherwiseTrivedi counters this with ldquoI want to give them as much exposure as possible They had not heard of squash until START with KAT where many of their parents work they know of animalcentric professions India has such a rich variety of beautymdashthere is a teenager with curly hair jawline and a swagger that would not be out of place on an Italian runway When I was hosting Get Gorgeous for the music channel Channel V we would scout for talent all over India Thatrsquos what I am doing hererdquoMuch of the population at KaloteMokashi is of the adivasi tribe Thakkar lsquoyha ranachi pakharrrsquo birds of this forest as the Marathi song goes and Neo Buddhists of the Navayana sect So how do you elevate them from mere props for fashion We try to present them as threedimensional human beings 13yearold Soniya Waghmare ranks 38 in the Under 15 category nationally 24yearold Bijali Darvade ranks 282 internationally and 16 nationally 17yearold Durga Parthi ranks 22 in the Under 19 21yearold Sadashiv Singhva ranks 64 nationally in the Under 25 and 19yearold Naresh Shingva in among the top 8 in the Under 19 category They giggle and look at each other when we ask them their rankingldquoIt doesnrsquot matter to themrdquo exclaims Tridevi in delight ldquoThey just want to playrdquo A city slicker would have told you the ranking first As they file up to model the bags they flounder awkwardly How does one wear a sling Which side of the duffle bag is up Where does the palm go Once overrelieved they fly back to the court