Photo Credit: Bharati Pawaskar
Photo Caption: Atik Ansari on his handloom at his shop Sabri Latifi Handloom at Ponda **
Intro: Taking pride in his traditional art and family vocation, Atik Ansari, a young handloom weaver from Muradabad, UP, travels from state to state earning his livelihood, and at the same time displays his craftsmanship and winning customers. BHARATI PAWASKAR meets this promising teenager at Ponda where he has set his shop
**
Bring to him your old, discarded jeans, dress, saree, bedsheet or scarf, or just about anything that’s made out of cloth “ cotton, wool or silk. Return after a week and you will find the same old piece of cloth transformed into something new, bright and beautiful.
“All what you see in our shop is handmade and especially made on order. We don’t sell anything readymade. We accept only labour charges for our work and take fifty per cent payments in advance as sometimes the customers give their old clothes to make something new out of it, but never return to collect it. If half the amount is already paid, the person comes and picks it up sometime later,” elaborates Atik Ansari.
Sitting with his handloom set outside their shop in the heart of the Ponda city is this 19-year-old teenager from Muradabad, UP. As his hands move swiftly on the loom, weaving threads in warf and weft designs to create beautiful mats, cushions, carpets, doormats, blankets and bed sheets, he is engrossed deeply in his work. It’s like meditation for him. Brothers Abdul Sayeed Ansari and Taufik Alam “ all from Uttar Pradesh have made Goa their temporary home.
The brothers are expert in weaving bedspreads, bedsheets, carpets, doormats, blankets and much more “ all out of the old, discarded clothes of people, and accept only the labour charges for the weaving.
For example, out of half kg cloth he can make two single bedsheets of 3x6 size or one double bed sheet of 6x7 size and charge the same amount, Rs 300. One kg cloth can turn into so many things “ one single sataranji or one double bedsheet, one double blanket or one sofa cover, two single carpets or one single soft feather or then a dozen doormats “ the choice is yours, what you wish to take home.
Ask him if he entertains enough customers, and he nods in affirmation. But he also points out to the fact that the brothers don’t settle in any one town or city for years as once the customers in the area get exhausted they don’t get repeat customers. The craze of giving ‘old and getting new’ does not remain for long and people soon get bored with the stuff.
Reasoning out, Atik explains that as the things he makes out of waste cloth material are strong and durable, people don’t come again and again. Pointing out that while the durability and strength is the plus point of his business, it is also the weak point, because he loses customers.
“But that’s how we get to visit different states and meet different people whom we really enjoy,” admits Atik who has started enjoying his vagabond life. A wanderer since he was very young, Atik lost his weaver father when he was one year old. He learnt the finer nuances of their family vocation and began helping his elder brother in weaving. Having travelled to Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and now Goa, Atik’s next destination would be Chennai in Tamil Nadu.
“I don’t know how that city would welcome us, with our limitations of communication, but we wish to work there for a while,” shares Atik. As he has never seen the face of school, he knows only Hindi and a smattering of maths that helps him calculate his labour charges.
“Schooling was not a priority in the family as I lost my father when I was just one year old and survival and earning for livelihood was what our family focussed on,” he says, with a smiling face. Being good at his weaving skills, he began to help his elder brother when he was ten year old.
In his hometown, every house has a loom and all are weavers by profession. The products that are woven do not have market so the ready products are sent to other cities for sale. Atik and his brother left home in search of work and making every new city their home for the time being, they travel to different states. This is not the case of the Ansari family alone, but of all weavers. Though the hand woven cottons and silks have great demand in the fashion world, the artisans who work hard to create the beautiful fabric are paid very less.
“We charge only for our labour,” says Atik too, content with less. His labour charges vary for different products “ ranging from Rs 150-1,800. Open for more than 12 hours, his shop attracts customers all the time. “We earn enough,” he admits. Being the only weaver in Goa who accepts old clothes and weaves new out of these, Atik Ansari represents those talented artisans who do not boast of their art or are demanding. This compels one to think positively of giving a hand to handloom and turning it profitable for the artisans who weave their dreams and aspirations into the cloth that adorns the homes of rich and choosy.
