Vijay Mallya may be having problems with some of his companies, but it
seems he believes in living life king size. Bidri artisans of Bidar are
making a wall-mounted dining table, decked with silver all over, for the
Mallya family.
National award-winning master craftsman Mohammad Rauf and his son Abdul
Bari are working overnight to create a dining table with floral designs.
The table that looks like an ordinary table cut into half, has four
legs. The straight end of the table would be fixed to a wall.
“Last month, some officials from the Kingfisher company came to Bidar
looking for me. They wanted to see my designs. I made a free hand design
and showed it to them. They liked it and asked me to deliver it within
three weeks,” Mr. Rauf said.
“The officials had seen a table that I made earlier. Around 20 years
ago, I designed a Bidri dining table, based on the picture of a wooden
table from Iran. The table top was inlaid with mother-of-pearl pieces. I
thought of doing the same with Bidri ware and produced an 18-inch
table. We sold it to a collector in Mumbai. Someone from the company
must have seen it and liked it,” he said.
He has not decided upon the price yet.
It depends upon the amount of silver that goes into it. Now we have used
over 3.5 kg of silver. It should cost around Rs. 4 lakh, he said. As
many as nine artisans are working on the table.
Rauf is a third generation Bidri artisan.
He is among the three master craftsmen identified by the Union Culture Ministry.
He created a memento for the Commonwealth Games and the Union government’s souvenirs at the world economic forum in Davos.
