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Cold fighters!
From Rs 200 to Rs 10 lakh! That?s the range of Kashmiri shawls which Rehaman and Roshan (names changed) hawk around in the city. They move around on rickshaws, scooters and bicycles and do the business. ?Lucknow buyers are rich. Within two months I have sold 10 shawls in the range of Rs 2-4 lakh,? says ferriwallah.
From Rs 200 to Rs 10 lakh! That’s the range of Kashmiri shawls which Rehaman and Roshan (names changed) hawk around in the city.
They move around on rickshaws, scooters and bicycles and do the business. “Lucknow buyers are rich. Within two months I have sold 10 shawls in the range of Rs 2-4 lakh,” says ferriwallah.
Their shawls are not just warm, but hot in Lucknow and have become the status symbol among the rich and socialites.
These ‘jewellery’ kinds of shawls are sold by a handful of vendors who vend their goods in their cars. And they go door-to-door like the cycle vendors, but quite differently. These shawl vendors know which door to knock. And they go to the doors of rich through rich people’s social circuits.
“People in Lucknow are very fond of expensive and intricately embroidered shawls. Many upper-class women buy very good shawls every season,” says a shawlwallah who has been coming to Lucknow every winter for the past two decades.
A businessman’s wife and a regular at page three parties says, “Good and expensive shawls make you stand out in crowd and gives a certain class to the dress. They are really rare.”
There are a number of shawlwallahs in Lucknow who mostly caters to their fixed customers and clientele.
“Not everyone can buy these shawls,” tells another shawlwallah who caters to the who’s who of Lucknow and has sold at least ten shawls ranging in lakhs in two months. None of these shawlwallahs say anything on record, for the kind of high priced wares they deal in and security reasons. But even those who buy it don’t want to be anonymous.
Another celebrity wife (who does not want to be named) says, “I am buying shawls from a single shawlwallah for the past 35 years. Till now me, my family and friends have bought at least five hundred shawls from this shawlwallah.”
Few varieties that are a hit with “Lucknowwallahs” as these sellers say are—wool shawls, pashmina and the banned shahtoosh shawls.
Even though shahtoosh is strictly banned but it does not discourage people to make or buy shahtoosh shawls. The most expensive work on shawls is weaving, which is also called ‘kanikaar’. A ‘kanikaar’ work shawl in shahtoosh costs up to at least 2 lakhs.
The life of these shawlwalas too have its story. From the month of March to November they stay in Kashmir and get the shawls made. And from November mid to March mid they stay in Lucknow and do business. Some of them even have decent well-furnished bungalows in Lucknow. “I have my bungalow in Lucknow where I stay with my family in winters and do business. When I started I used to do ‘pheris’ on a bicycle, then a few years later I bought a scooter and now I have a car,” told a shawlwallah.
