This story is from October 24, 2014

Inflation hits taziya makers, not their craft

Three months into its making, and the special wax taziya of 1st Moharram’s Shahi Juloos is already Rs 5000 costlier than the projected production cost.
Inflation hits taziya makers, not their craft
LUCKNOW : Three months into its making, and the special wax taziya of 1st Moharram’s Shahi Juloos is already Rs 5000 costlier than the projected production cost. The 20 feet-high taziya is made by a family of skilled craftsmen who have been coming to the city from Jarwal in Bahraich to make it for the past 17 years.
A taziya is a replica of Imam Hussain’s mausoleum in Iraq and holds special significance during the mourning period of Moharram for azadaars in the city.
Made from slender bamboo sticks entwined together, it is decorated elaborately with papers of various textures, colours and patterns.
“Buying material here in Lucknow is costlier than in the village where we come from, but getting the material along with us is not possible. So we are forced to purchase paper and bamboo here itself. There is a definite loss incurred during production but we don’t shy away from it. Our name and reputation is attached to the Shahi taziya we prepare, so we cannot cut down on its beauty,” says Naseer Ali, who works with a group of eight on the wax taziya and three other important ones. Naseer and his group barely manage somewhere around Rs 8000-10,000 in total for themselves even as Rs 50,000 is put into production.
The design and pattern of the tazia is modified every year. As prices rise, so does the cost of labour and material but the size, height and appearance of the taziya do not suffer.
Hasan Mia whose entire family has been making taziyas for Moharram has taken a break for two years now owing to space constraints. The taziya preparation requires ample space for the material to be stocked, carved and prepared into the final product. “The size of a taziya does not matter, what matters to people is the faith attached to it. With rising prices, production cost goes up, but in the end a customer takes whatever he wants to as per his faith and budget. There is no right size or true weight or shape, it all depends on what one can or wants to take back home,” says Hasan Mia.
“My budget has diminished due to inflation which is why I will try to take a smaller taziya this time in Moharram. Having said that, my faith and reverence shall be the same irrespective of what size taziya I take back home or how decorated it is,” said Shabeeh Haider, a resident of Old City.
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