Click to play videoMumbai: As the country gears up to celebrate 60 years of Independence, the Indian tricolour is getting finishing stitches at Mumbai's oldest flag manufacturing unit.
Gaffar Sheikh along with many other craftsmen at Mumbai's Khadi Gramudyog are working overtime ensure that the required number of flags are ready on time.
Three generations of Sheikh’s family have been in the flag-making business and they say that the standard criteria specified for flag-making is painstakingly followed by all the craftsmen.
“I feel proud that I make these flags. I actually feel that I'm serving the nation,” Sheikh says.
Started way back in 1946, this flag manufacturing unit is the only one in Western India, supplying over 30 lakh Indian flags each year.
With the demand increasing every year, the tallest flag, which is at 14 feet, costs about Rs 7,000 and the smallest flag at six inches is priced at Rs 60.
“All institutions, Collector's office and ministries take flags from us,” curator of the Khadi Gramudyog Sangh, Shashikant Shah says.
As the patriotic fervour builds up before the Independence Day, for these craftsmen, it will soon be time to take up another tall order – January 26. And Sheikh’s vision for a better India is to see that each Indian wears and flaunts the National Flag not just for a day, but through the year.
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