Close to the city of Paithan, in a small village called Sauviragram, which lay along the banks of the great river Godavari, lived a woman named Ilaa. Being cotton farmers, her family was well to do, but not among the richest in their area. It was the harvest season, and cotton had to be picked from the plants. The wholesalers and traders from Paithan would be arriving in just a few weeks, carrying gold and goods for barter. They would exchange what they carried for the cotton that the farmers grew. The bales of cotton had to be ready in time! Work was at its peak!
But Ilaa was not to be found in the fields. She wasn't working. Instead, she was sitting by the banks of the great river Godavari.
'I am sick of this!' she grunted loudly.
Ilaa was tired of picking pieces of cotton during day and preparing Paithani silk during the night. She along with her mother and father used to work in fields but the double work pressure of exporting both cottons and silk was forcing her to lose temper.
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During Marathan Period, the barter system under the reign of Shivaji (1655-1674) was disrupting the lives of villagers. As per the rule, the villagers of Sauvirangram traded in exchange for cotton and gold in order to earn their living. Along with cotton, the villagers were forced to prepare Paithani Silk which was traded to European Market via Mughals and their secret agents who worked for Mughals and Marathas both. The villagers were badgered consistently and were punished for not fulfilling the estimated demand.
Paithani Silk which was popular for design and high valued material was prepared with multicolour threads woven together for a unique design. The golden and silver threads used were the same metals which villagers earned through their hard work in fields. Ilaa was frustrated with the same activity of Mughal snoopers who were augmenting the size of delivery day by day without increasing their pay. The villagers work pressure for timely delivery of assignments and helplessness to not to disclose this activity to the Maratha Ruler, Shivaji. There was a time when a villager tried to uncover the troublesome activity to the ruling authority in the nearby camp but the snoopers killed him on the way and hanged his head on trident throughout the village. They kidnapped his wife for pleasuring their local leader that night. It was a horrifying experience for the villagers and since then no other person ever tried to find out a way which may help them to skip the situation.
Ilaa was in consistent trouble to solve the roadblock and bide her time for villagers who worked hard day and night. With the rustling sound of flowing water and psithurism, she felt like the trees are yelling for freedom, freedom to live in peace, freedom to breathe free and freedom to make their dreams come true. These were the signs that Ilaa's heart was yelling out through the surroundings as she was now unable to behold the trauma going on.
In her deep thoughts, she grasped the end of her mudded dirty saree and opened the knot which had two bidis in it, an Indian cigarette made up of tobacco wrapped in a leaf. Lightening it with the match stick she started smoking to cool down her temper like every other occasion when she found herself and fellow countrymen hopeless. Ilaa was 19 but she was as fearless as the soldiers of Maratha and Mughals. She was standing next to the inventory of the Mughals Snoopers where silk cloth collected from each house were stored. These silk cloths were bundled together at the end of each week and exported to European countries in exchange of gold weighing the same as the silk. Thus, she thought of mocking the guards of the inventory and threw her lighted bidi in the window of the mudded house accidentally on purpose and escaped secretly.
