Old craft: Changing times for Pindi’s chic blinds makers

Imported products, interior designing slowly taking over an old trade

RAWALPINDI: Craftsmen in Rawalpindi’s old market of chic blinds and curtains reminisce about a time when people had not known the sophisticated interior designing and it was largely these crafts people who used to make the household furniture.

Popularly known as the Chic Bazaar or Chickon Wali Gali, the market is located near the Saddar Bazaar. It was part of the British-era cantonment in pre-Partition time and is today one of the oldest markets in the city.

Many shopkeepers and craftsmen have worked here for generations.

“I started working here in 1965. Before that, my father worked here,” said Siraj Hussain, a shopkeeper, while fixing a cane net.



It is not that the market has been left behind in time. Many shopkeepers have modernised their trade and now sell expensive curtains and blinds imported from China, South Korea and Malaysia.

Not only curtains, the market also offers baby cots, chair nets, boxes and various other products made out of canes.

Waheed Butt, a shopkeeper, said demand for the imported blinds remain high throughout the year. He said demand for chics, locally-made cane curtains, soars at the start of winter and summer.

“Chic blinds not only keep you cool in summer, it also works as an insulator against cold,” said Butt, who also inherited the craft from his father.

The cane mostly comes from Kasur and Lahore, a shopkeeper said.

“We just give finishing looks to the product by fine cutting and sewing cloth on the edges”, he said.

Speaking on the market for locally produced cane curtains, Muhammad Rafique said it takes him three to four hours to complete a single curtain on his own. However, he said the price for local product is very low — Rs20 to Rs50 per square foot.

“It has been a family business from pre-Partition days. The sales have remained steady all these years,” said Rafique, while making a gift basket.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2015.