CharPais!!!

Today was a cloudy and a very humid day. It was 12:00 pm, I was driving on one of the busiest roads of the city and took a wrong turn which brought me to these Charpai display shop. I was amused to see their vibrant colours and patterns.

'Char' means Four and 'Pai' means Legs. Here my friends you are looking at 'The Four Legged Bed'. Funny! That is the least number of legs or stands a bed could have. Why is it called so, I really don't know. Perhaps, it is the most logical way of defining the structure of a bed. :) Another word used for charpai is 'Munji' (which means bed in Punjabi).

A traditional charpai is woven with rope made of a particular plant. A modern day charpai is woven with white cotton or plastic rope (sutli i.e synthetic rope). The ones in the picture are made of coloured plastic ropes.

While a charpai's primary function may be for sleeping, it has a wide range of uses, serving as a seat, temporary fence, sunscreen, platform for drying and straining food, hitching post for animals, carrier for goods, child's play structure, scraper for food, sieve for grains, backdrop for puppet plays, stretcher for sick people, and is used in birth and death ceremonies.

Because of its open, porous surface, the charpai is ideal for hot, tropical climates. Particularly in villages, charpais are often used outdoors, where people conduct all sorts of daily activities and socializing on it. Like much behavior in Pakistan, proper etiquette must be observed. Those with higher status sit toward the head end; lower-ranking people sit on the opposite end or on the floor.

You might be interested in viewing a 3-D image of a charpai