Geetanjali Krishna: The local spirit of enterprise

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When I first saw Hamid working on a loom in Panipat, I saw nothing particularly out of the ordinary about him. His fingers were certainly nimble and quick as they flew across the warp thread stretched on the loom. But that wasn't unusual for someone who has been weaving rugs for over 17 years. "He might look quite ordinary, but make no mistakes "" Hamid is extraordinarily gifted," said his supervisor, "show him a picture, or a scrap of cloth, or a diagram of a particular weave, and he can replicate it unerringly!"

It wasn't always like this. When Hamid arrived in Panipat 17 years ago from his tiny village in West Bengal, he was unlettered, unskilled and penniless. A fellow villager had told him there were plenty of work opportunities in Panipat. "I could have gone to Surat or Mumbai or Delhi instead, but Panipat somehow seemed like a good option to me," he said. He began, as all migrant workers in Panipat do, as an apprentice to a master weaver. "In a couple of years, I learnt to weave, and started to work under a master," he recounted. He kept very busy, for weavers in Panipat were paid according to the amount of work they did. Soon, he became skilled enough to be appointed a "master" "" a supervisor of other weavers.

In more ways than one, Hamid's move to Panipat was a fortunate one. "I won't have learnt all this if I'd stayed on in my little village in West Bengal," he said, "working in Panipat has made me understand how important it is to be competitive. Today, all the buyer has to do is to show me what he wants "" in a book, on a CD or just in a diagram, and I can weave it!" Seeing how well he has done, many others from his faraway village have also migrated here. "I bring my family here for a couple of months every year, and the rest of the time they stay in the village," he said.

There's a lot that Panipat has to offer its large migrant population, Hamid said. Potholed roads and overloaded drains certainly don't do much to enhance its looks, but for the thousands of people who come here in search for employment, the town is nothing short of Mecca.

"There are many different types of jobs available in the rug business alone, like spinning yarn, dyeing it, weaving different weaves and so on," he said, "so when people come from their villages they can earn good money doing unskilled work, and then gradually pick up some skill." Locals, he said, have little aptitude for weaving. "Most of the workers you see in Panipat are from UP, West Bengal and Bihar," said Hamid, "the locals are much better at trading and wheeling-dealing than they are at weaving!"

But Hamid had nothing but admiration for the small and medium-scale businesses he has worked in. What the locals lack in talent, he said, they make up in sheer enterprise: "In Panipat, I have seen an interesting work culture that I have not seen anywhere else. If a loom owner finds, for instance, that the type of rug he is making is not selling as well as another woven product, he won't think twice before selling his original looms, and setting up new looms to make that product," he said. As a result, Hamid has learnt to weave anything he is given "" on all sorts of looms. "I have to," he grins, "after all these years in Panipat, the local spirit of enterprise has also rubbed off on me!"