SRINAGAR: When the Qatar government placed an order for 70,000 Kashmiri pashmina shawls with FIFA logo on them, to be delivered at short notice, the officials were not expecting to receive the handmade product in time for the World Cup.
However, the enterprising Kashmiri businessman Wasim Rifat, who runs a shawl manufacturing unit called Aslam Exports, surprised them by delivering the order two days before the World Cup started, enabling Qatar to give away the famed Pashmina shawls as gift to the guests and VIPs during the FIFA World Cup.
How did Wasim pull it off?
“About 35-40 days before the start of the World Cup, I received an order for supplying 70,000 Pashmina shawls. It was a very tough job to complete the order on time,” said Wasim. He, then, hired as many as 4,000 artisans from across the Valley to fulfil the order.
“The artisans worked in double shifts (day and night) to complete the work. They worked very hard and we managed to complete the weaving of 70,000 Pashmina shawls in 35 days, two days ahead of the World Cup,” he said.
Wasim, who had quit his networking engineering business to switch over to Kashmir arts business, said when he informed the Qatari government about completion of the job, they were amused. “It is a miracle,” Wasim quoted the Qatar officials as saying, adding, “In fact, they were not expecting the order to be completed on time.”
Pashmina
Pashmina shawls are known for their warmth and light weight. It is a fine wool extracted from goats found in Ladakh