“I was born in Multan, into a family that owned two handmade carpet factories. I began working at the factory when I was in second grade. Around 300 people used to work in the factories until the business started to see a downfall for various reasons, such as allegations of child labour employed by my family.

In 1994, I met with a road accident and one of my hands was paralysed so I could not keep making carpets, and I began marketing the goods produced at my family’s factories. Then came 9/11, which dealt the final blow, and the factories’ exports were stopped. My family had to pursue cases in court and we even had to sell our house to meet expenses. We could to even pay the labour, and the factories were closed.

My father took me and my three brothers to Karachi and opened a carpet showroom there. We did good business for 10 years, but then the showroom was repeatedly robbed, forcing use to shut down the business and leave the city.

My brothers returned to Multan, and my father and I decided to move to Islamabad and started a showroom in F-7 with a partner. But the business suffered losses after a few years and we had to shut it down. After my father’s death, I began selling carpets at the side of the road in Kohsar Market.

I rent a house in Dhoke Kala Khan in Rawalpindi. I have three sons who study at a private school. It is mostly foreigners who take an interest in handmade carpets, and I sell one every 10 or 15 days. At times I have to borrow money from friends or relatives to meet expenses. I have a pickup to bring the carpets from home and take them back, and sometimes I run out of money to even buy fuel for the vehicle.”

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2019