The ongoing hot weather has brought blessings for the cool mat weavers at Napiterhat village in Rajapur upazila as the demand increases during this time.

The children, girls and women are passing busy time in the upazila as summer is the peak season for selling the mats, locally called shitol pati.

Shitol pati is weaved from stalks of the murta, a reed-like plant locally known as paitra, and is spread on the bed to keep the bed naturally cool.

Five to ten days are needed to make a medium size pati, which costs around Tk 1,000 to Tk 2,500, said weaver Mala Rani Patigar.

In the community, women are the main bread earners and the men assist them in making the mats, said Swapan Patigar, secre-

tary of the Patigar Association of the area.

About hundred families are involved in weaving shitol pati and their survival depends on

the summer season's sale, he added.

"We make the patis and store them throughout the year for selling them in summer as we get

fair price during that time," said weaver Sangeeta Patigar.

The patis are mainly sold in fairs at different places as there is good demand in fairs.

A medium size pati is sold at Tk 1,000 to Tk 2,500 to the wholesaler while it costs Tk 1,500 toTk 3,000 in the markets, depending on its quality, said Swapan, adding that they sell 7,000 to 10,000 patis every summer.

This mat is very soft, cool and beautiful which people like to use in summer, said some customers who came to buy patis from the weavers.

This pati keeps the bed naturally cool and the body feels natural comfort, they added.

"We have to compete with artificial mat (made of plastic) for our survival," said the weavers, adding that they could work better if they got loan on easy terms from banks.