A Swiss woman settles in India – 13
By Simone Toni Weibel
The hot summer days have been gone for weeks and these days the temperature is falling more and more. In my apartment, I feel like being on an arctic trip without polar bears to warm me up or, at least, cuddle. First thing, people would say to me; you are from Switzerland, how can you feel cold? Well, there is one big reason, why I am here in India – the warmth. I just feel cold easily, simple as that. Anyway, I started to look out for warming things like a heater, a feather duvet, woolen clothes and blankets. But, oh boy, you want to find natural fibers over here? Good luck with that.
First of all, people over here call acrylic and polyester fibers woolen. But they are not. Those are synthetic fibers, made out of plastic resources to be simple in explanation. They load up electricity and offer a beautiful firework like spectacle in the dark, when you shake them up. Quite often, they look bad after no time, as they build so called pilling, the little fiber balls on the most exposed spots, like sleeves or bottoms. One also tends to sweat inside these fibers. If you have strong sweating armpits, you can’t wash the smell out of your clothes anymore after some time. All in all, you might understand, why I am looking for natural fibers, specifically wool from sheep, alpaca or such. They have a self-cleaning quality, so you don’t have to wash them very often, just expose them to fresh air. Even better if there is a bit of moist.
The touch of nice quality wool feels kind and honest to me. It is warming in a gentle way and it lets your skin breathe. But it is very difficult to find it over here. As for a woolen blanket, I gave up. There are thousands of acrylic blankets in every third store in all varieties, but not one single woolen blanket. As for the clothes, I had to order them online or I go to the second-hand stores, where you can find pieces if you are lucky.
Yesterday, my landlord’s daughter told me that people don’t buy woolen stuff, because they get eaten by the moths over summertime if they are not properly packed. For me that would never be a reason, regarding all the benefits you have from it. And last but not least I have to mention that synthetic materials are non-biodegradable and there is a huge problem out there of littered landfills and oceans. Don’t get me started about microplastic.
Synthetics and plastic are cheaper to buy in the first place, but for your health, wellbeing and environment, in a long-term view, it pays off to choose nature’s gifts and make the effort to maintain them instead of buying new synthetics all over again. However, I wish that you stay warm.
(Simone Toni Weibel (47) is an independent artist, teacher and writer from Switzerland who has settled down in Dehradun.)
