Hoshiarpur’s wooden wonder is Modi’s gift to Trump : The Tribune India

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Hoshiarpur’s wooden wonder is Modi’s gift to Trump

Priced at Rs 1.55 lakh, the chest was handed over by artisans Kamaljit Matharu and his father Rupan to New Delhi-based Central Cottage Industries Emporium in March 2016. Awaiting its sale for the past over a year, they were told recently that the item had been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office. Both consider the chest as one of their best works

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, June 27

A wooden chest gifted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to US President Donald Trump has been crafted by a local artisan, Kamaljit Matharu (31), and his father, Rupan Matharu (52), both national awardees. Priced at Rs 1.55 lakh and made from sheesham wood, the 22-inchx15-inch chest had been handed over by them to New Delhi-based Central Cottage Industries (CCI) Emporium, which falls under the Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India (CCICI), in March 2016.

Awaiting its sale for the past over a year, they were told recently that the item had been sent to the PMO. Busy in his workshop outside his house on the Hoshiarpur-Phagwara road, Kamaljit said, “It took us over seven months to make the intricately patterned chest. It’s one of our masterpieces.”

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Rupan said six generations of his family had been involved in craftsmanship. “My grandfather was an instructor at Government Arts and Crafts College, Chandigarh. Later, my father was appointed there. After my father’s death in 1980, we returned to our ancestral village, Boothgarh, in Hoshiarpur,” he said.

Financial problems made Rupan give up studies at the age of 15 and join the family profession. “The sales were poor during the first few years as the prices were too low, but I did not lose hope,” he added.

In 1989, he received the state award for craftsmanship, followed by the Ministry of Textiles’ National Merit Award for Crafts (1994) and the National Award for Craftsmanship (1997) of the Union Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. Kamaljit joined his father at the age of 18 and went on to win the National Merit Award for Crafts and the National Award for Craftsmanship in 2009. Both have been part of Indian exhibitions in the UK, Brazil and other countries.

According to Rupan, the price of an item depends on the artistic inlay. “We have objects with rates ranging from Rs 75 to Rs 4 lakh. We send these to the CCI Emporium. After their sale, the amount is transferred into our account by the CCICI,” he said. Both said they preferred deals with the CCICI rather than private players as the former was a reliable government undertaking.