Chintakindi Mallesham

Chintakindi Mallesham

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Chintakindi Mallesham Profile

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Chintakindi Mallesham Biography

Chintakindi Mallesham is a school dropout who became the inventor of the now famous 'Asu machine', which revolutionised the production of Pochampally Ikat weaves. He invented a mechanised Poochampali silk sari weaving machine to ease the pain of weavers. The pain experienced by his mother while weaving, made him think about an innovative idea and he started working on it. Government of India honoured him with the fourth highest civilian honour - Padma Shri in 2017 recognizing his efforts. He was one among 15 such unsung heroes whose efforts were honoured that year. He was 42 years old when he was honoured.

 

Chintakindi Mallesham was born into a weaver’s family, who traditionally were weavers of Pochampally silks. He was born in Aler village in Telangana’s Yadadri district. As a young boy, Chintakindi would watch as his mother Lakshmi, a handloom weaver. It’s a tedious process winding metres of silk yarn on to a large frame — a process called asu, and it takes hours to complete this process. From the repetitive work Lakshmi’s shoulders and elbows would ache and Chintakindi Mallesham decided to do something to lessen her efforts. For a Class VI dropout, it was nothing short of a challenge.

 

It took seven years of trial and error, between 1992 and 1999 to find a machine which has been named as ‘Asu machine’, and within 10 years of its invention, it created great ripples in the weaving industry. He came up with the machine with no prior technical or engineering knowledge. He keenly observed machines in rice mills and workshops in his village and started thinking how this method can be adopted for the asu process and finally he succeeded.

Published: February 15, 2019

Updated: February 15, 2019

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