Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :
Bengaluru :
In an obscure bylane abutting the glitzy Commercial Street, Riyaz Pasha is engrossed in some intricate work. He’s giving the finishing touches to an embroidered orange-magenta dress. Ask him who it is for and pat comes a reply. “For Lord Krishna and Radha,” he says before getting back to fine-tuning the chamkis (golden beads) on the skirt.
For 15 years, Pasha, 48, has been the official embroidery designer for Iskcon, Bengaluru. “Everyone has the right to serve god. I enjoy doing this work for the temple,” he told TOI during his first visit to Iskcon on Thursday.
“When we approached him to do the embroidery, he didn’t think twice. And he has no inhibitions talking about our requirements. We have been working in perfect synchronization for 15 years now. We provide the dress material to him and he does the embroidery and other work,” said Bhaktilata Devi Dasi and Chameri Devi Dasi, dress designers at Iskcon.
So far, Riyaz has designed more than 105 dresses for Radha, Krishna, and Balaram. “It takes me two to three days to get one piece ready. Sometimes, it may even stretch to a week,” he said. When asked if his family or community had any reservation to the job, he said: “This is a business for us. All my family members and community leaders understand that and have no problem. No one has opposed what I do. I keep religion out of my work and treat every assignment equally. I will do this work for the Krishna temple all my life”.
Everyday, the attire is changed twice at the temple. “The whole idea of making the deities wear embroidered Kancheevaram sarees is to make them look brighter, even from a distance,” said Bhaktilata.
Not just in Bengaluru but in Vrindavan (Lord Krishna’s birthplace) too, it is a Muslim who designs dresses for the deities. As Vasudev Keshav Dasa, Iskcon vice-president (deities), puts it: “At Iskcon, we do not discriminate based on religion.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Bengaluru / by Seetha Lakshmi, TNN / December 15th, 2015