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| The Rafoogar or darner, darning the jute cross stitch piece |
Rafoogars – the humble darners. Once a part of every market, their numbers are dwindling. They would sit and ply their trade, darning and mending a tear here or even garments which were literally in tatters. They would do it slowly, steadily and voila, when returned one would barely see the tear. Better still one would have to look for the tear. This was usually done to repair winter garments especially expensive shawls, sweaters, jackets. What stands out is the skill level of the rafoogars who simply pick up nuances of a new fabric and can work on it and repair it. It looks almost new. . So from silk, chiffon, georgettes, Dakha Muslin, fine cotton to even newer fabrics like lycra, tencel and more.
There are rafoogars who have picked up their skill from nearly everywhere. Each locality has its own special rafoogars. The bylanes of Chandni Chowk have some very well known and famous ones. Rafoogars can be called a jack of all trades when it comes to textiles. They can sew, embroider, rework the fabric, attach it to something else, it is their innate understanding of the textiles which helps them to function with such practices ease. A Rafoogar working on a carpet will work like a weaver and a filler. He will weave the base fabric and fill it with piles of the same colour so that the damaged area is just not visible. Working with basic tools, the rafoogars can create magic with their fingers.
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| An old jute cross stitch piece made by my mother which was darned to perfection. |
The entire repairing or darning is done using threads pulled out from scrap pieces collected from local tailors. All rafoogars have their bags which are full of scraps of cloth. These rags are collected from tailors and cloth merchants. The thread from scraps of cloth is pulled out and threaded on to the fine needle and worked.
No account of the darning experts is complete without mentioning the needle which they use. It is the fine needle which dances with the fingers to fill tiny holes and gaps. One can thread a hair through its eye. It is very difficult to see the hole. The needle has another peculiarity it will bend but will never break.
Next time you give your stuff to a Rafoogar or a master, look closely at his skill for restoring. Apart from Chandni Chowk, Mehrauli has a host of reputed rafoogars. So has Hauz Khas Village, where there are plenty of restorers who work their magic on old silk sarees and the like. Darning is more than an art, it is a skill to rejuvenate what was old and it is still common in India. Like a lot of our crafts, we simply take them for granted.
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