arindam ganguly
post news network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 8: A craftsman whose skill impressed even the US First Lady Michelle Obama is in town, again. Glass bangles maker Haji Mohammad Yamin of New Delhi has been making these ornaments from the age of 5. And this artisan has been a regular presence at Cottonfab, the annual fair held at Exhibition Ground, over the past four years.
Yamin’s collection of photographs with personalities such as Sheila Dixit and the late actor Sunil Dutt bear testimony to his popularity.
Glass bangle making is the bread and butter for Yamin’s family, which includes his four sons and wife.
This native of Aligarh in UP had moved to Delhi in 1984. He has been running a successful bangles business there since.
At Cottonfab, too, he says, he makes about Rs4,000 a day. “I prefer customer satisfaction as that is what matters in the long term,” he said.
That his customers are satisfied is indicated by the fact that Yamin has been able to slashprices of his sets of four bangles from Rs60 to Rs40.
Yamin fondly recalls the day he met Michelle Obama — November 8, 2010. The US First Lady had visited his stall at National Handicrafts and Handlooms (Crafts) Museum in New Delhi and he got a chance to show her his work.
“Glass bangle making is a hard job,” Yamin says, and avers that one cannot find defects in the bangles he makes. So, how does he make these bangles? “We melt glass by heating it at high temperature for one to two hours and shape bangles out of the molten glass. We have a trademark style of melting glass, which fuses the glass at joints,” he said.
Besides glass bangles, Yamin also makes other items out of glass such as the shivling. But age is catching up with this artisan and his output has reduced significantly. Howevern, his sons now handle most of the bangle-making work.
This gives Yamin time to visit different parts of the country for events such as Cottonfab. “Before Bhubaneswar I had visited Nagpur, Bangalore, and Ernakulam,” he said and added that he would keep coming to the city “till death”.
