He also won a National award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles in 2006
An award-winning papier-mache artisan from Kashmir who has won several awards and accolades has resorted to driving an auto-rickshaw in order to support himself. Recently, a Twitter user revealed that he was left ''disheartened'' when he took an auto and recognised the driver to be Syed Aijaz Shah, an extremely gifted artist. In a series of tweets, Khawar Khan Achakzai shared about his encounter with the award-winning artisan in the streets of Kashmir.
''The only worth (but disheartening) thing about today's traffic jam was taking an auto and recognising the driver to be Syed Aijaz, an award winning paper-machie artisan who has received numerous accolades. His work has been recognised and awarded in South Africa,'' read the tweet.
In the subsequent tweet, the Twitter user said that Mr Aijaz has won several honours, including a National award from the Indian Ministry of Textiles and has been covered by several international journals, including BBC. However, he struggled to make ends meet through his art and was forced to drive an auto rickshaw instead.
''He has visited many countries as a guest and trainer and has imparted his skills to students all over the world. But circumstances forced him take over driving a Tuk-Tuk. Arts and crafts in Kashmir make a meagre amount of money. He could not feed his family from it. To him, Tuk-Tuk does better than awards and recognitions,'' the tweet reads.
During the conversation, Mr Aijaz lamented that these ''crafts won't sustain for more than 5-10 years now. Everyone is leaving due to financial reasons.'' He ended his conversation with, ''taqdeer bani, bankar bigdi, duniya ne humein barbaad kia'' ( Destiny was made and then destroyed us).
However, despite the hardships, Mr Aijaz makes sure that he always finds time for his art every day, morning and evening.
''Aijaz Sahab is a wonderful human being. He still finds time for his art every day, morning and evening. He spends his day on his Auto and at the end retires back to his beautiful world of colour and craftsmanship; working on his unfinished murals and unworked dreams,'' the last tweet in the thread reads, showing a picture of him busy working at his art.
According to BBC, papier mache is a craft that is believed to have been brought to Kashmir in the 14th Century by Persian artisans. However, the art has lost its appeal, forcing struggling artisans to turn to other jobs to make ends meet -such as driving tuk-tuks or working as salesmen.