Up in the hills of Ranikhet, in the militarily perfect Kumaon Regimental Centre campus with its deeply curving roads stretched on gently undulating slopes, is a stone building sitting on a hillock announced by the signboard - KRC Woollens. Those who park their cars on the bend in the road and walk up the stretch of steps cut into the hillside are never disappointed. That is because KRC Woollens sells some of the best woollen shawls and tweed in the country on an almost no profit, no loss basis.
The small showroom is stocked with some of the most exquisite spools of woollen fabric  in colours ranging from elegant creams and soft browns to brilliant canary yellows and lively pinks. For men, there is material as well as fashionably cut and tailored blazers in stylish tweed in shades of grey and brown, some with even a hint of maroon or yellow for the more adventurous dressers. However, there is something else that makes KRC Woollens special. Since few visitors bother to step inside, they miss out on the rows of looms spread out in the factory and the smiling Pahari women who are bent over them.
What makes the tweed from KRC Woollens acquire a bit of soul is the fact that it is weaved by the slim and deftly moving fingers of a war widow. The project was started by the Kumaon Regimental Centre to give employment options to widows of soldiers who lost their lives in wars or war like situations. Around 10 women work at the factory to produce approximately 80 plain shawls a month.
Inside, you can meet the gentle-faced Rama Bhandari, wife of Havaldar Jeevan Singh of 3 Kumaon who lost his life in the Kargil war; the crinkle eyed Dharma Devi whose husband died in the 1965 operation; and others like 36-year-old Kamla Devi with three growing children who lost her husband in a tragic accident.
"The factory was set up with the aim to rehabilitate war widows," explains Hon Capt Sher Singh, looking after the project. "We function on a completely no profit, no loss basis and the ladies even have the option of staying in our War Widows Hostel," he explains.
The women get paid at the rate of Rs 45 for a plain shawl, Rs 198 for a Ranikhet shawl,  and Rs 240 for a Dharchula shawl - differentiated by interesting weaves and patterns. Not really a lot of money but just enough to support a widow on a small pension living in an inexpensive small town and let her live with dignity on the small pension her dead husband in entitled to. The women - most coming from nearby villages of Kumaon - are first given intensive training for eight months till their fingers set on the looms. They then start working on plain shawls and go on to the more intricately patterned Dharchulas.
I meet Savitri Devi, wife of late Naik Jaykishan busily bent over the bright green shawl that slips between her fair fingers lined with delicate blue veins. "I lost my husband 22 years back," she says with a smile that is tinged with pain. I manage to get about                        Rs 2,500 per month from KRC. Things would have been much better if he had been alive, but at  least my family is not starving," she says with quiet dignity. It is the same dignity that gets transferred to the shawl that she weaves.
For details, contact                        KRC Woollens, Ranikhet, on 220567