Silk pillow of Semal Cotton

Silk pillow of Semal cotton

Rich or poor, humans need pillow to rest. While sleeping, one needs perfect bed pillow to fill the space between the head and shoulder. Little lift of the head reduces the blood flow into the brain and ease it going into sleep. People in general are using plant cotton to make the pillows. But some special people use silk, soft fibre and the cotton of Semal tree in their pillows. When normal pillow costs ₹500, the Shimar cotton pillow costs ₹5000. It has medicinal use, as it gives deep sound sleep. It gives cooling to the brain and the softness prevents the stiffness of the neck. It removes spirit, therefore used as pillow for the children. The children who are crying more and not sleeping well, this pillow acts as a treatment. 

Semal, Shimalo (Ceiba Bombax) is a Silk cotton tree. It is a very useful tree as it's stem cover, fruits, gum and flower are used for medicinal use. As the tree is cold in nature, it's parts are used in controlling diseases related to heat, pitta, blood toxins, etc. It's wood is used in making boats. But the most important is the use of it's seed pods. The pods containing seeds surrounded by a fluffy, yellowish fibre that is a mix of lignin and cellulose. The fluff like cotton of the seed pods is used in making pillows. Difficult to spin, the cotton is used in making pillows, mattresses and teddy bears. It is resistant to water, therefore used in life jacket before it was replaced with synthetic material. As the trees are limited and it's cotton is scarce, therefore, the pillow made of Semal is expensive. 

Don't rush to the mall 'Home Town' and increase the demand, otherwise in limited supply of the tree cotton, the supplier will use more of synthetic fibre and less of Semal cotton. After all, you won't know the truth of the stitched pillow. If you get deep sound sleep while resting your head on the Semal cotton pillow, you can trust the shop keeper. Otherwise, go into the forest, collect the cotton of the Silk tree and make a pillow at home. We tried once some 7 years ago, collected cotton from a Semal tree standing behind the Akshardham in Sector-20. The cotton of the tree is so soft, that it goes on squeezing as you use it. If worried about some spirits (bhoots), do use Semal cotton pillow. 

Grow more Silk Cotton Trees and make more Silk Pillows! Lol.

Punamchand 
4 July 2016