One of the many encounters was with Rabia Begum and her son Shahid Khan, who are rafoogars, also known as a cloth surgeons. Shahid’s father had learned it from a friend in Kashmir, and this technique was passed down to all family members. Rabia Begum has been doing this work for 45 years, having learned it from her sister-in-law. When her husband passed away, she had to take care of her four children. Her son and she started this small business with her son, who also dyes clothes.
The rafoogari technique is an embroidery technique, solely for the purpose of mending fabrics. This technique is closely connected to the Kashmiri shawl. These shawls are handwoven and are of invaluable worth. If a hole appears in them, people don’t mind having it repaired. The rafoogar learns to make the visible invisible, and to mend the fabric in such a way that it is hardly noticeable. This technique is mainly performed by men.  The damaged fabric is essentially woven closed with needle and thread.

There is always repair work to be done. When I visited the workshop, they had just received a bag of 35 shawls from a shopkeeper. A nail had gone through the jute bag, and all the shawls were damaged. The art is to make the repair invisible, because of course, no one prefers to wear repaired clothing because it also signifies poverty.