Your mom is strong, versatile, flexible, and multi-talented.  She clothed, fed, and supported you right from your very first days.  Give her a gift that is as nurturing and multifaceted as herself.  Surprise her with something bamboo this Mother’s Day!

Soft- Mom has always shown a great amount of compassion and sensitivity.  Clothe her in silky bamboo with a stylish shawl, luxurious pajama set, or elegant dress.

Strong- Like the sturdy bamboo plant, mom has demonstrated toughness and perseverance.  Remember your teenage years?  Present her with one of our attractive and durable bamboo serving bowls or cutting boards.

Nourishing-  Let her pamper her body and replenish her spirit with our selection of body products and candles!  We feature pure beeswax candles from Big Dipper Wax Works as well as  organic, natural skin body butters by Nourish.

Wise- With an inspirational scroll or stone bearing an insightful quote, you will demonstrate to mom that you have taken her words of wisdom to heart!  A truly thoughtful gift! Choose a saying from the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Buddha, Albert Einstein, Rumi, and many, many more!

Flexible- Mom has had to bend over backwards for you.  Let her know you appreciate her flexibility with a soft, stretchy pair of bamboo yoga pants.

Whether it is breakfast in a bed outfitted with our bamboo sheets, or a childhood photo of you in a bamboo picture frame, you are sure to find a meaningful and memorable Mother’s Day gift here at Bambu Batu!

Following our recent post about Gandhi’s commentary on cotton commerce between India and her British Imperial masters, we had a number of requests for more sagacious words from the Great One.

So today we impart to you Gandhi’s Seven Social Sins:

* Wealth without Work
* Pleasure without Conscience
* Science without Humanity
* Knowledge without Character
* Politics without Principle
* Commerce without Morality
* Worship without Sacrifice

We’ve also had a surge of requests for Gandhi related Limericks, so I give you this:

There’s a march from Ahmedabad to Dandi
Where the Indian beaches are sandy
          They made their own salt
          And were ordered to halt
But orders meant nothing to Gandhi

The picture above shows Mahatma Gandhi spinning his own cotton in protest of British Imperialism, similar to the more famous demonstration where he and his followers collected their own salt on the beaches of Dandi (Salt Satyagraha) in 1930.

Gandhi also made the following observations about the economics of Indian cotton and the systematic exploitation of Indian for her raw materials under British rule.

Step 1: English people buy Indian cotton in the field, picked by Indian labor at seven cents a day, through an optional monopoly.

Step 2: This cotton is shipped on British ships, a three-week journey across the Indian Ocean, down the Red Sea, across the Mediterranean, through Gibraltar, across the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean to London. One hundred per cent profit on this freight is regarded as small.

Step 3: The cotton is turned into cloth in Lancashire. You pay shilling wages instead of Indian pennies to your workers. The English worker not only has the advantage of better wages, but the steel companies of England get the profit of building the factories and machines. Wages; profits; all these are spent in England.

Step 4: The finished product is sent back to India at European shipping rates, once again on British ships. The captains, officers, sailors of these ships, whose wages must be paid, are English. The only Indians who profit are a few lascars who do the dirty work on the boats for a few cents a day.

Step 5: The cloth is finally sold back to the kings and landlords of India who got the money to buy this expensive cloth out of the poor peasants of India who worked at seven cents a day.

(Fisher, F.B., 1932 That Strange Little Brown Man Gandhi, New York: Ray Long & Richard Smith, Inc.)