Gurugramwale: Sadar’s rafu master

They are a rare breed now. The rafu masters are experts in the art of darning. There are only two of them in Gurugram’s Sadar Bazaar, running their businesses from modest pavement stalls.

“Rafu master” Rajan is new in the area; he arrived two months ago.

But Raju karigar, the other “rafu master”, has been at a Sadar Bazaar establishment for 22 years.

“I do both altering and rafu-giri,” says the gentleman. He patiently explains that the former is to get a ready-made dress fit the body perfectly and the latter is to discreetly disguise a dress’s damaged portions.

The advent of the convenient ready-to-wear clothing has adversely affected the profession of darning. Old Delhi’s Chawri Bazaar, for instance, has only one rafugar, Sajid Suhail (he has been covered on these pages). Raju karigar, 45, is even more unique in the sense that he became a rafugar by accident—most darners tend to inherit the trade from their fathers.

Raju grew up in a village in Jharkhand. “I lost my father early .... he was a carpenter.” The desperate circumstance forced him to pick a profession, any profession, and so “I learnt tailoring from a relative to quickly start supporting my mother.”

Following a series of odd jobs, many of which had nothing to do with tailoring, the gentleman ended up in this Gurugram market some 26 years ago—as a tea seller.

“And finally I opened my rafu ka stall realising it might give me better business.”

He was right. This weekday afternoon, Raju karigar is being accosted by customers in quick successions.

Now a lady arrives, urgently looking for a specialised needle so she can sew a fall on her sari at home. Raju karigar has only a single spare needle of that kind, but he gives it to her for free though she insists on paying him “some amount.”

Recalling his many struggles, Raju, whose real name is Mujeem Sheikh, says, “I have lived with honesty despite many hardships, no bad activities, never took any loan from anybody, not even from any bank.”