It's about one of her designs we implemented. "Can we not sell 'tik tak' clips?" she asked me one day. Of course, we can sell anything that is aesthetically pleasing. "But what are 'tik tak' clips?" I asked. She explained they were named like that because they literally opened and shut with a noise. She said we could put fabric flowers on them to add value. They did look pretty when the samples were made and in my mind's eye I could see those who bought children's clothes from our shop buying these matching clips. But I was wrong. Women came to the shop and bought them in dozens. They even put on a couple immediately, enthusiastic and happy about their purchase and thanked me profusely for this addition to our shop's repertoire.
Realising that there was some charm about these clips, which was obviously escaping me, I was happy that it was at least adding to the revenue and, more importantly, to the work for the girls in our workshop. These clips were being made by a young girl named Siuli. When she could not cope with the numbers the shop was demanding, we arranged for her to fabricate them at home with the help of her sisters.
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I must say she kept to her commitment and produced them as fast as the shop was selling them. Till one day, Mariam, another girl who works with us and comes from the same village as Siuli, came in the morning and informed me that Siuli would be late. "Her younger sister left home yesterday and the whole family is running around trying to trace her," she explained.
Siuli arrived a little later and informed us that her sister had called to say she had run away with a cycle repair shop-hand to Bihar and they had already married. "Where in Bihar?" I asked. "I don't know," Siuli said. "They said Aligarh or Saharanpur." I didn't argue realising this was not the time for a geography lesson!
From the time that Siuli had come to work with us, her persona had undergone a change. From a young shy Muslim girl she had become confident and self-willed. With a growing bank balance and the ability to help her family financially, her ability to influence them had obviously increased. She had told her family that she was in no hurry to get married and would wait for a guy with a proven ability to earn. Two of her sisters and many others in the village had been married off only to return soon with their husbands in tow.
Little wonder then that Siuli's younger sister had eloped. With her new-found independence and financial empowerment Siuli was in no hurry to get married. And no parents would start looking for a boy for a younger sister with the elder one still unmarried. So, her sibling hardly had a choice.
Little work got done at the workshop that day since all the girls wanted to know how Siuli's sister behaved before she ran away. How come no one guessed? What did she wear? and other such queries.
I just told Siuli that I hoped her sister had some money on her. If her beau's money ran out at least they would not go hungry. Siuli said: "Yes, of course. She was keeping all the money we were earning from making the clips!"