Mr. Chinthakindi Mallesham is a Padma Shri awardee who transformed the lives of handloom weavers with his invention, the Laxmi Asu machine. On this Engineer’s Day, he shares his journey in his own words.

“I was born into a humble weaver family in Sharjipet, a small village in Alair Mandal of Telangana. My parents worked hard weaving handloom sarees just so we could have two meals a day. I remember my mother spending long hours on the Asu process, an important part of making Pochampally ikat sarees.

She would stretch her arms continuously, winding yarn around pegs for hours together, her shoulders and elbows aching, and at the end of the day all she could do was apply some balm and rest. Watching this almost every day was painful and I decided to relieve her of that burden.

I was a school dropout who passed class 10 after multiple attempts and had no knowledge about machines, yet I challenged myself. I observed every movement of my mother’s hands and broke the process into parts. With countless trials, failures and late nights, I slowly started creating a machine.

My parents thought it was a waste of time and even got me married so I would give it up, but after moving to Hyderabad for work, I pursued it again. I earned about seventy rupees a day and saved whatever I could to buy tools. I collected discarded machine parts and experimented with them. I also delved into electronics and computer programming to enhance its functionality.

After years of effort, the day came when my Asu machine was finally ready. It could finish in ninety minutes what once took six long hours. The moment I saw it work, I cried. I thought of my mother and so many others who no longer had to suffer that pain. At first, even my parents didn’t believe me until they saw it in action.

Soon, people from villages started placing orders and I built several hundred machines.

In 2017, I was honoured with the Padma Shri award, but nothing compares to the pride in the eyes of my parents and my community. A few years later, my journey was even made into a feature film titled Mallesham, directed by Raj Rachakonda, where actor Priyadarshi played my role.

Watching it on screen felt surreal, as if my struggles and hopes were being relived for the world to see.

A few years ago, with support from the Government, I set up a workshed in Alair to continue innovating. I do not want to stop with the Asu process. I want to make the other steps of weaving easier too, so that every weaver’s life becomes better.

My journey began with a mother’s aching shoulders, but today it continues with a dream of building tools that protect the dignity of our traditional craft and the well-being of the people who keep it alive. To me, true engineering is not about degrees, it is about solving real problems.”