Stories from the Atelier: Guddu Bhai

Ashfaque Ahmed Sultan Ahmed Shaikh

A man of very few words and very fast hands. In the fourteen years that Ashfaque Ahmed Sultan Ahmed Shaikh, aka, Guddu Bhai has worked with Papa Don’t Preach, he’s become known as the man that can stitch a mile a minute. Despite his young age, Guddu bhai was introduced to his to-be career at the age of fifteen. His extensive experience in the field is preceded by his earnest dedication to the craft. It’s his exemplary talent that makes him the only karigar at Papa Don’t Preach to be a part of the garment, shoe and bags department.

Guddu bhai joined Papa Don’t Preach at its very inception. He was the first of a total of four karigars for as long as he can recall.

 “This is the longest that I have been with a company, I can barely remember when I started but I can tell you one thing. If you had told me 13 years ago that I would be managing the sampling unit at a luxury fashion house, I would not have believed you. I have spent so much of my life playing a small role in even smaller textile workshops that I almost lost sight of why I was doing this in the first place.”

To understand his perspective, Guddu bhai recalls the pivotal moment he became enamoured with the craft, despite his father’s wishes. 

“By the time I was in the eighth grade, I skipped school so much that I was absent from class more than I was present. My parents didn't know that I was going to meet my friends at their tailoring shops during the day. Learning the craft of tailoring started as a joke, a dare that my friends challenged me with. Once I started, there was no going back. I fell in love with the meditative nature of the craft, much to my father’s disappointment, I made it my mission to turn it into a career. My father was a mechanic of power looms and jacquard machines, unlike so many of the other karigars, nobody in my family was from this line of work. This made my choice harder. My teenage years were fuelled by the drive to learn tailoring and doused by the fear of hiding it from my family. When my father finally found out, he treated it like a personal failure that his son wanted to be a tailor.”

With a heart full of ambition Guddu bhai spent years learning a craft that he believed would serve him a lifetime, only to be disappointed with its returns over the years.

“In the last twenty years, fast fashion and machine development have been the main causes for the rapid dwindling of the craft. The number of people that have the same passion for the practice has also reduced. I remember my friends would say, “yeh kaam main zyada maza hai, school ka kya fayda?” I believed them because I could see the platform and demand for zari work. Zari work was associated with royalty, it was the intricate use of silver and gold threads that made the final product look fit for a king. Today, beyond the creative pleasure it gives you, there is no life beyond it.”

Much like his father, Guddu bhai explains his dreams for his children’s futures

“I have three children, they’re all in school so it’s early for them to settle on a career but I hope they have an entrepreneurial spirit. My wife passed away a few years ago, so my mother and I have been raising the kids together. The irony is, my father wanted me to join his line of work but I had my own dreams to follow and today, I don’t want my daughter to join my line of work but she seems set on pursuing what I do. I do hope she understands where I come from when I say that zari work and Indian hand-embroidery in general is a dying craft, slowly dwindling away at the hands of the fast fashion industry. My daughter has a mind of her own and a creative fire that nothing can water down. She is always cutting, styling and stitching her own clothes and loves to watch design shows.” 

Guddu bhai goes on to explain the need for empathy and respect in the business, which would guarantee higher morale and a better work environment for karigars.  

“I stayed with this company for well over a decade because of how they treat me and the team. I have worked with other brands for a much shorter time because there was a general lack of empathy and respect. You can tell that we’re treated as equals here because of how well we were taken care of during the pandemic, and because our children's education or medical expenses are covered by Shubhika ma’am. My main teaching in life is that it doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in, as long as you’re surrounded by people that lift you up. The team I have built here, with Usman bhai as my right-hand man, has been through hell and back together. After the pandemic, we worked almost 20 hours together, only to then go home and play ludo with each other for three hours. I wouldn’t trade that companionship for anything. These are not large demands, just basic needs of a human being, which are sometimes ignored by big brands.”

Being the senior most member of the team, Guddu bhai shares his experience and the difference between garments, bags, and shoes.

“In all the years I spent making garments, I never once tried my hand at making shoes and bags. I got that opportunity with the company because our team was growing so rapidly, they needed more help. I was hesitant at first, but I was able to learn on the job. Bags and shoes are very different from making a lehenga. There is relatively less embroidery and more energy is used in getting the needle to go through the thick vegan leather, to stitch the product together. With garments, my focus and creative discipline increased and I definitely prefer making lehengas over bags. I still remember the day I saw a picture of Madhuri Dixit wearing a black saree stitched by me. Watching her effortless beauty in something that was hand embroidered by our team brought such joy. Since then, we’ve dressed so many celebrities but only Madhuri has my heart.”

Displaying multiple cuts on his fingers, Guddu bhai shares why he will never lose sight of why he chose this field

“When you handle a needle for 10 hours a day on a daily basis, it shows in the form of blood, bruises, splinters, and cuts. Neck pain, eye strain, and back spasms are common and come with the territory. If you ask me to leave today, even if I had other options, I wouldn’t because I have spent my life praying to the needle. I showed up at those small and cramped workshops every day for twenty years, so that I can work in a 6,500 square foot office today; I built my life on this. The fruits of my labor are what you see today at Papa Don’t Preach and I wouldn’t turn my back on that.”

Disclaimer: Guddu bhai's story sounds beautiful when narrated in his chosen language (Hindi). However, for the sake of the platform, we've translated the above interview.