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Ishrat Kamal

"My name is Ishrat Kamal. In the vicinity of famous Varanasi lies the township of Mirzapur where I was born in April, 1954. I have lived and worked there as a manufacturer of carpets, rugs, wall hangings etc. This was my parent’s trade, and despite taking a degree in electrical engineering I entered the field propelled by my own interest and family tradition. Today I have a production unit with fifteen people on pay roll and connected with around 2,000 weavers who work for my workshop, exclusively from their homes. I design our products together with master designers employed by us. Our products are exported to the markets of Europe and America regularly. We are also associated with New Delhi-based designer Shyam Ahuja, through whom our products get international exposure.

"We believe in making world-class products and use the highest quality fast chemical and natural colors to support our classic designs. The raw materials used for rugs, carpets, runners, and wall hangings are wool, cotton, jute, and silk. The labor intensiveness of our work can be understood from the fact that it takes five full days for a skilled laborer to make four-foot by six-foot rug. All our products are completely hand-woven on the traditional handloom. We use all kinds of floral and geometrical designs for our carpets. I have introduced a lot of changes in these years in terms of quality, design, and colors since we can survive only by supplying the very best. Many apprentices learn this craft at our training center to associate themselves with our organizations at a late stage.

"In our family my elder brother Shakeel Ahmed has won a National Award for Excellence in Handicrafts in 1982. He has also traveled abroad to Germany and Netherlands. I have not received any award as such to date. I have great expectations that this craft, that happened to be our family tradition, should continue down the generations in our family. I also have a great hope from Novica for making our choicest products reach the discerning customers in America."