NASIR YOUSUFI
SRINAGAR: With sheer passion and unmatched brilliance, a specially-abled artist, deaf and mute since the birth gives life to wood. He is the man with golden hands – 55-year-old Muhammad Yusuf Muran!
As soon as the clock tickles to 9:00 AM in the morning, sporting a festive smile, he comes downstairs and slips into the backyard of his house. After giving a thorough look, he selects a block of round wood among a number of cut logs, lifts it into his two hands and slips into a small room. Keeping the wooden block on a raised platform in his long but narrow workshop, the man begins to mark it all over with a marker. Hours after the intense chisel and hammer work, a triumphant smile flashes on his face as he is able to see the first outline of imagination.
Hailing from Srinagar’s downtown area or Shaher-e-Khaas, he produces a class of art in the form of artifacts and mementos carved in wood.
Nestled in the lanes and bylanes of the Narwarah area of Srinagar, Muran’s small workshop can send any onlooker into nostalgia. An elderly Kashmiri puffing a traditional Hookah, family enjoying the samovar tea in rural land-scape, a group of elephants strolling in a field, a large sized eagle spreading its wings, Sir George seated on magnifi-cent horse fighting a dragon and the replica of famous Jamia Masjid in Srinagar are among his outstanding artworks showcased at the workshop. Made at this small workspace, these replicas and mementos have won Muran a world-wide recognition and accolades.
“I am a staunch lover of wood carving art. I have seen many masterpieces from various artists, but this man has got a unmatchable class in his work. I have never seen such a perfect art elsewhere in the field,” says Sumaira, inte-rior designer and ardent lover of handmade art from Central Kashmir’s Budgam. This man has simply got golden fingers, she adds.
Defeating his disabilities with a mix of imagination and perfection, the deaf and dumb wood carving artist, has learned the art from his father and elder brother. “He has learned this art since childhood. Initially, he learned it from his father late Ghulam Ahmad Muran and then from his elder brother Abdul Ahad Muran, who passed away few years ago,” says Arsalan Yousuf, younger son of Muhammad Yusuf Muran.
“My father is like any other artist in the field, but one of the reasons behind the popularity of his artwork, I think, is his dedication and hard work. Every day, he works for almost nine hours on wood from 9 am to 6 pm except on Friday. In the first half of the day, he goes to local market for purchasing the raw material and in the other half, he visits different religious places to offer prayers,” says Arsalan.
“Almost a decade ago, our family faced a lot of financial instability. A chunk of a people used to benefit from my father’s hardwork. He was only paid peanuts while the major portion of the profit used to fill the pockets of the mid-dlemen.”
“However, after my cousin brother opened a wood carving store, our family has witnessed a huge change in in-come, as we are able to sell our products to customers directly now,” adds Saqlin, Muran’s other son.
“Presently, I am able to sell the products of my father both offline as well as online. I even receive orders on social media handles too. Our customer base is increasing day by day, as apart from the buyers within the country, many orders come from Arab and European countries. Since my father cannot talk, I am looking at marketing part of my family craft,” says Saqlin.
As the 200 year old family craft is finally paying benefits to Muran family, the business suffers the shortage of quality wood. There is a dearth of superior walnut and deodar in the market, the artisans say. “We have to often pay extra money for getting the quality material and that makes the craft more costly,” Saqlin adds.
Muran, who only uses quality wood of walnut or deodar for his work, takes special care while choosing the mate-rial for his artwork. “I have never seen him using substandard material”, says Saqlin while referring to his father who works in a corner of his workshop, carving a replica of “Old man holding Hookah”.
While Muran is busy in creating scores of masterpieces, annually earning the family a name and fame in the field, unfortunately, there are almost no new takers to learn the art from this brilliant wood carving artist!
