Every morning 25-year-old Mehvish Dilbar from Srinagar opens a drawer of her cupboard, fetches a box filled with a variety of colors and brushes, places them next to the canvas pinned on cardboard, and calligraph the letters from the Quran. “Calligraphy is the peace of my mind and it refreshes my soul,” she says gently. The vibrant Dilbar is a young woman from Kashmir who started calligraphy to make a living during the pandemic. Her interest in calligraphy developed last April when Covid-19 lockdown was imposed across the country. An artist since school days, Dilbar tried her hand in calligraphy too. In May 2019, she uploaded her first work on Twitter which was warmly appreciated by netizens. Soon, people started texting her for orders.
“I opened an Instagram page for my work and within months, my page received a good response,” says Dilbar. “I am not taking orders on a regular basis but still I earn more than 6000- 8000 in a month from it”.
It takes her almost two to three hours to complete one frame. “I have to draw the outline, then I have to color the background and finally I need to draw strokes with multiple brushes on the canvas to make it attractive for the customers,” Dilbar tells News18.
Compared to market rates for calligraphy, the artist has kept her pricing low in order to strengthen her customer base in and outside the valley.
Like hundreds of young women entrepreneurs from Kashmir as well as other states, however, Dilbar soon began to face trolling and negativity from netizens after just a few months of success in the field.
“I was new in the online business and many people took advantage of it. Many times, people used to place the order and then disappear which resulted in loss of my material and energy,” Dilbar recalls.
Not just pranks and fake orders, Dilbar also received unwanted and sexists texts asking her about her gender. The constant online heckling took a toll on her mental health. She eventually ended up deleting her page in fear.
Mehvish Dilbar calligraphs the order of a customer in Srinagar.
Although she still receives orders from customers on her personal account, Dilbar says she is planning to reopen her public page with and feels confident that this time would be different.
Like Dilbar, 28-year-old Iqra Ahmed is an inspiration for young men and women entrepreneurs of Kashmir. She was the first to start an online clothing store in the Valley in 2015 and in a short period, she gained popularity and success in the market.
Iqra Ahmad in her new upcoming store in Srinagar.
Ahmad had always dreamed of becoming a fashion designer and work for preserving traditional and cultural Kashmiri attire and fashion. After completing her Masters in Linguistics from the University of Kashmir, the young artist stepped into the entrepreneurial field in 2015 via an Instagram page named “Palav”, which literally means clothes in the Kashmiri language.
Ahmad has grown up with a love for Kashmiri culture which she acquired from the stories of her 66-year-old father, Hakeem Javaid, which has fuelled her passion for traditional Kashmiri clothes.
while pursuing her master’s in 2014, she started experimenting with new designs that she learned by herself, on her own clothes. Her experiments won her compliments from her close friends and motivated her to convert her hobby into her profession.
After completing her degree, even as Digital India thrived, Ahmad’s business, mostly through Instagram also thrived and started receiving a warm response from customers. “Back in 2015, the culture of online business was limited in the Valley and there were many stores with the name Palav,” she said.
“So, in spring 2016, I changed my business’s name to Tul Palav (pick clothes).” Backed by her family’s unconditional belief in her vision, Ahmad started picking trends from western clothing fashion and implemented it on the traditional pherans, suits, and shawls.
Frequent internet shutdowns
In August 2019, when internet services were suspended in the valley after the Indian government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 360, online entrepreneurs like Ahmed faced severe losses. Not only did they lose connectivity with their customers from around the globe, but they also missed the season of weddings where for which many had stocked up a collection for customers. “We suffered huge losses after 2019’s internet lockdown and then the pandemic added to the woes,” Ahmad recalls.
“I created Instagram to connect to my customers. Luckily I managed to get thousands of customers from every corner of the world. Till August 2019, I had 50K followers on my verified page, but in one snap I lost my account while using a virtual private network (VPN) to access the internet,” Ahmad added.
Even After four months of shutdown when internet services partially restored to 2G speed in Kashmir, social media sites were barred by the authorities to access. To access the sites, many in the valley like Ahmad opted for VPN services. In doing so, her account was hacked by a young boy in Turkey. “I tried every possible way to get my account back but all my attempts were in vain. The boy is currently selling socks from my account,” said Ahmad.
She opened a new account and currently, Ahmad has nearly twenty-five thousand followers on her Instagram page, with a team of twelve people working with her – locals and non-locals. “Once an order is placed, I start working on it as per the requirements of my customers,” Ahmad said. For her, the satisfaction of a customer comes first, and “if the customer feels unsatisfied, we take our products back.” Six-years after establishment, Ahmad’s Tul Palav business till pre-August had a turnout of 4,00,000 to 5,00,000 rupees per month.
“I never thought that I would become an entrepreneur,” Ahmad said. “Social media helped me make my dream a reality, and I feel lucky that I can employ other people as well.”
Like other online business ventures in the state, however, the long and untimely internet bans hit her business as well. “Internet ban is a big challenge for every online business,” she said. “There were times when we lost our customers as we couldn’t contact them online on time.”
Recalling some of her online customers, the designer said, “A lot of people think that those who are doing business on Instagram are not professional and react very immaturely.” Ahmad, however, never lets these things pull down the spirit of her team.
Initially, customized tilla pheran was her key product. With time, however, Ahmad has now started adding more features to the products. Today she has a variety of products to offer, including pure silk suits, bridal wear, pheran, casual-wear, shawls, and handicraft suits within the range of 5,000 to 40,000 INR.
“Tul Palav’s motive is to design attractive garments and start a new trend in the market, while focusing on traditional craftsmanship,” said Ahmad. “I started Tul Palav to preserve and sustain the Kashmiri culture while keeping a grip on new trends in fashion as well.”
After four years of starting her venture during which Ahmad has worked hard with dedication to make her venture successful, Ahmad plans to open a physical store in the uptown area of Srinagar. She has even rented a store. But due to ensuing unrest since August 5, 2019, the store has been unable to properly launch.
“Business has immense scope in Kashmir especially for girls but what we lack is support and platform,” she said. For her, if people take initiative and stand for what they believe in and “that will make anyone financially independent,” said Ahmad.