Sonamukhi / Kolkata: A group of families in Sonamukhi – a Bengal City of around 3,000 km from Kabul – is watching the events that take place in Afghanistan with a normal interest rate.
For more than half a century, families in Bankura Regency have trade relations that develop with Afghanistan, supplying high-quality silk turban, or SAFA, to Kabuliwallah.
With trade between India and Afghanistan stopped after the takeover of Taliban, weavers and sellers of turban looked at losses in business and some had begun to shift to store and weave the original BaluChari Sari.
“We have been in this business for three generations.
Until last year, I had an annual turnover of Rs 1 Crore only from selling this turbans but trading suddenly stopped now,” said Shyamapada Dutta, 49, who runs a weaving in Sonamukhi and has a shop in Rabindra Sarani in Kolkata.
Sonamukhi’s bond with the Afghans returned to the 1960s when several Kabuliwallah when traveling across Bengal-Spice and dried fruits were drawn to the village known as the weaving of rich silk.
“They gave the first commandment for silk turbans and liked the product so they continued to return for more, and so trading began,” said Asit Baran Shoo, another weaver.
He added that even in the 1990s around 500 families in the village were involved in trade in turban but the number is now reduced by around 50 because of digital printing and most of the new Afghane removing turban.
Turbans are valued between RS 350 and RS 3,500 depending on the quality of the silk used.
Afghanistan-based city like MD Rasul and Akhdat Khan said that they had time and returned to buy turbans from Rabindra shops and from Sonamukhi both for personal use or for export.
“But the situation looks grim now.
We don’t know when everything will be better,” said the Apostle, who was in Kolkata for the past 40 years and dealing with clothes.
(Input from Sudipto Das)