MITHI: Lov Raj was working as a sub-engineer with the Alternate Energy Development Board when his ageing father, Nathu Ram, persuaded him to quit his job and join their block-printing business. Today he sells suits and bed sheets from his home outlet in Mithi’s Kunbhar Colony.

“We have been in this business for 320 years. My father made sure that my siblings and I received a good education but now that he is getting old, he is looking towards us for support. My elder brother is also an engineer working with a firm in Islamabad. I was my father’s last hope,” Lov says.

“Ten years ago, there were 40 households in Mithi doing this work, providing labour to 7,000 individuals. Now there is only the Nathu Ram Issar Das Khatri Block Printer. We have 10 workers only. I had to come into this business or else it along with the art would have died here completely.”

A block-printed bed sheet.

The reason for the closing of the businesses in Mithi, according to the young man, is lack of communication and education.

“We have roads, telephone lines, internet, bank branches and online systems only now in Mithi. There is no local market for the things we make, so these things mattered when dealing with people in other cities. And their absence resulted in the closing down of the block-print businesses. We need more educated people to be able to know about money transactions, etc,” he says.

Determined not to let the art die, Lov and his father recently volunteered to train some 200 women in the art of block-printing through a USAID-funded project in Tharparkar.

“It is important to keep the art alive. It is part of our culture, our heritage. I wish there was an institute where we could teach this art. The 10 people working for me aren’t common workers, they are artisans. I try to keep them happy, arranging for their food, etc, and paying them Rs400 to 500 daily,” he states.

The wooden blocks and seals that have lasted for years.

In the family’s workshop nearby, there are a couple of men busy working. There are different colour dyes in the jars on the shelves with the blocks. “We use 90 per cent natural dyes made from choona, or lime, gond from the gum tree, turmeric, henna, neem leaves, wheat flour, rust for which we dip a piece of iron in water for around 72 hours to derive the right shade of reddish brown,” he says.

The blocks they use are those made by hand by their ancestors. Some of the ones they still work with are 100 to 150 years old. “We keep cleaning them after use so that they can be kept in service for long,” he says.

The blocks and seals with quite intricate flower and leaf designs bring out meenakari textures, some also have pretty peacocks, majestic horses and magnificent elephants. All the blocks made from wood have enough depth to absorb the dyes and leave their permanent imprints on the fabric.

Lov with his father Nathu Ram.

“The cloth or fabric used by us, too, by the way, is the best quality that we can find such as pure cotton and poplin,” Lov says.

The prices are extremely reasonable. A shirt piece sold for Rs400 and a shirt and dupatta for Rs900 are bought by shops and boutique owners from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and then sold for much more. “Well, sometimes they do a bit of embroidery on the fabric or have it stitched in various sizes and to sell for triple or four times their original price,” Lov says laughing. “It’s okay. It’s business.”

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2015

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