Lockdown at the time of Covid 19 was just boring for many. But for some, it was time to learn new things and also new experience. For others, it was also a time to satisfy their creative skills. And for this Finnish academician, it was a time to learn and gain proficiency in quilting.
Marjaana Jauhola, a senior lecturer in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, spent the lockdown period at a small farmhouse in a village near Mundra in Kutch in Gujarat. She has been studying for the last many years studying the changes in society in Kutch region after the 2001 earth quake.
This Lockdown time, Marjaana Jauhola decided to try a hand in quilt making. On her interest in quilts, she was quoted as saying that quilt was alternative history writing. It tells about women’s lives, experiences and dreams.
She lives in Bhuj Town for her research. After the lockdown came into force, she shifted to Zarpara Village near Mundra. Apart from focussing on her research activities and her distant academic work for the University, she spends her remaining time for quilt making. She feels that quilt making has many stories woven into it. These connected generations it is a history itself, she feels.