Quilt makers cosy up to Delhiites as winter sets in

With temperatures dropping and winter descending on the city, Delhi's ubiquitous quilt makers are on velvet. Most of them are from Rajasthan, the home of the soft, downy bed accessory that becomes a must-have every winter.

The push carts are parked at every corner, as the colourful quilt maker spins out the cotton, making and selling quilts right on the roadside.

The dull clickety-clack of the cotton-threshing machines becomes a part and parcel of a Delhi winter scene, with bales of bright fabric spilling onto the sidewalk.

Every year, the quilt maker returns to the capital to create anew and plump up the handmade covers that have lost their freshness.

"After a couple of years of use, the cotton in quilts becomes compressed and lumpy. It is no longer as warm as a new one. So every year we have people bringing the old ones in, and we take out all the lumpy cotton and fill it up with fluffy new cotton," said Nazir Khan who has taken over a sidewalk in east Delhi.

From dawn till dusk he is busy working with a bow –shaped wooden stick, to which are tied metal strings that are used in threshing out old compressed cotton. Each ball of compressed cotton is methodically thrashed out.

A resident of Bijnore in Uttar Pradesh, Khan has been a regular in the city every winter. "For 10 generations our family has been in the quilt business and I belong to the 10th," he beams proudly.

Khan takes a shop on rent for a couple of months as do many others who come from his hometown Bijnore and neighbouring Moradabad, in Uttar Pradesh. The best cotton comes from states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. But many of them buy the cotton locally from the wholesale market of Sadar Bazaar in Old Delhi.

The desi (locally grown) variety of cotton, considered the best is sold in the market at the rate of Rs 40-45 per kilogramme and is the mainstay of the cottage industry that churns out quilts, mattresses, pillows and cushions. The major mills in Ahmedabad are another source as they spin out factory rejects and cuttings that can be used to augnment the soft cotton. Quilt makers are also using 'fibre' and semul as stuffing.

Khan says he sells about 10 to 12 a day, but at peak season in December-January, he has at least 25-30 people visiting him daily. Prices vary depending on where Delhi's residents buy their quilts.

A made-to-order quilt from the roadside quiltmaker costs Rs 300-350, whereas an up-market store sells between Rs 800-1000.But this age-old craft perfected by the men from Bijnore and Moradabad is threatened by modernisation.

Many shops in the city, are using machines that whip the cotton into shape in a few minutes. Abbas Ali of Moradabad said :"While a handmade quilt takes three hours, a machine-made quilt can be ready in 15 minutes."

But Ali is unfazed. Claiming that readymade quilts had in no way affected his craft, he says "The majority of our customers are from the middle and lower classes. The demand is for handmade quilts and these are much more durable."

Komal Singh had heard so much about Jaipuri quilts that she bought one last year from an up market shop. "But it turned out to be a fake. I am again switching over to the good old handmade quilt," she said.

"The only reason I can think of is that since a quilt cannot be washed, over a period of time when it gets dirty, the stains don't show," explains a redoubtable Ali.