As the festive spirit picks up in the city, there are cards and gift boxes that are stacking up in a corner of Mohit Uberoi’s shop in Chawri Bazaar. Cards that celebrate togetherness and traditions for Karva Chauth. Diwali cards and gift boxes in popup colours too.
And customers have started to come in. Located just behind the historic Jama Masjid, ‘Matak Shatak’ is in an area that specialises in wholesale markets for paper products and brass-copper bathroom fittings but there is a special reason why customers from all over the city hazard the narrow lanes, noisy and teeming with hand carts, rickshaws and two-wheelers, to reach it.
In other words, it is for the art, the conversation, and the openness of Uberoi who customises cards to personal situations—from marriages to separations. When many wedding-card dealers in Chawri Bazaar refused to print wedding invitation cards of Delhi boy Vaibhav, and Parag—the two had a court marriage in Washington DC in 2017—Uberoi, the owner of a 64-year-old shop, came to the rescue.
Not only did he offer to print the cards, he customised the wedding paper bags as well with their photographs on it. This paper bag with a tag, ‘Welcome to the wedding of Vaibhav and Parag’, still hangs right beside Uberoi’s desk—the sign of a door being open, as if a sign is still necessary, of being the one shop in one of Delhi’s busiest markets, that doesn’t say ‘No’ to any of its customers, however iconoclastic or ‘crazy’ their ideas might be, and for his willingness to add his own creativity to it.
Originally named ‘Classic India’, ‘Matak Shatak’ was opened by Uberoi’s grandfather in 1959 in Chawri Bazaar, the hub of the city’s wedding market. After his grandfather’s death, his father took over the shop and ran it under the same name till he died in 2018. When Uberoi took over, he decided to expand his business through holding exhibitions across the city and in other states as well.
To make it sound more exciting and creative, and to give it the feel of a brand in the market, he renamed it ‘Matak Shatak’. “The firm is still registered by the name of ‘Classic India’, but the new name came to me in a dream and I must say it actually worked. ‘Matak Shatak’ is a brand in itself. People call me up to put up stalls at exhibitions,” says Uberoi.
Artsy offerings
How does ‘Matak Shatak’ stand out in a market that houses hundreds of such wedding card dealers? “My store is not limited to wedding invites. My purpose is to promote Indian art forms, including Madhubani, Kalamkari, Pichwai, Ikkat, Patolas, Ajanta caves paintings and Mughal art, as well.
This I do by offering customisation in everything I have, which includes wedding bags, wine-bottle covers, gift cards, key holders, mobile stands, ‘favour gifts’, hangover kits, hotel stationery, itinerary, luggage tags, bookmarks, coasters, table mats, mugs, rupee notes, book holders, birthday invites and return gift boxes,” lists Uberoi.
Once a bride came to him with a picture of her bridal dress and asked if he could print it on her wedding cards. Another bride, who was a painter, wanted her paintings to be on the wedding card and wedding return gifts.
A lady wanted customised 50-rupee notes with her husband’s photograph for his 50th birthday. An elderly couple wanted to gift their father’s Urdu poetry books to their relatives and needed a customised book holder for it.
Open to all ideas
“You name it, you bring an idea, you bring your photographs, or designs for any event, any festival, any occasion and, for that matter, any religious gathering and I shall create whatever is on your mind. This is my idea of the store.
Also, what I have to offer doesn’t hurt anybody’s pocket. Product costs range between Rs 100 and Rs 500,” he says. He recently made invitation cards for overseas customers for the ‘Chautha’ ceremony of their father. “I also print separation party cards. I also get calls from Korea and Germany to print wedding invites in their languages.
It is fun to play with all kinds of ideas,” he says, though he now battles depleted staff strength. Due to COVID-19, his team is down to six from 25. Besides, customised gift envelopes, ribbons, butter sheets, gift-wrapping papers, stickers and even holders of religious books are available at ‘Matak Shatak’. “A lot of people suggest that I shift to South Delhi because of the stuff that I have at my store but my heart lies here, which is the soul of the city. Every lane and bylane tells you a story, ” says the Old Delhiwala.