A heart-warming tale of three brothers from Budgam, Kashmir
A narrow road branching off from the main thoroughfare at Narbal town in Kashmir Valley’s Budgam district leads to the sleepy village of Gotapora. Merely two bends in the road after you enter it stands the single-storied modest house of the Mirs.
Inside the house, three challenged brothers — Tariq Ahmad Mir, Nazir Ahmad Mir and Farooq Ahmad Mir — are sitting side by side in one of the uncluttered rooms. With thread and needle in hands, they are busy sewing elaborate designs on Kashmiri shawls.
The Mir brothers have been suffering from Muscular Dystrophy (MD) since their childhood. This is a peculiar medical condition which causes the degeneration of muscles. As the disease progressed, it affected their mobility, restricting them to the four walls of their house.
“Due to the disability we could not do any other job, so we took to embroidery,” says Tariq Ahmad Mir, who has a penchant for the art. A post-graduate in Urdu and a die-hard poetry lover, Tariq says that he and his siblings learnt the craft from their father, Mohammad Sultan Mir, who used to be well-known in the area for his deftness in embroidery.
The three brothers worked for several years for the wastas (the middlemen in the shawl trade) for paltry remuneration. “We were paid scantly as a large cut of the profits would go to the middlemen, so we decided to form our own small group,” recalls Tariq.
In 2009, they created their own initiative called, ‘Special Hands of Kashmir’. Today, nearly 40 craftspersons are associated with the initiative and are earning their livelihood through it..
