Crafting A New Innings

MAHARUKH MISTRY, 72 MUMBAI

- Delaveen Tarapore

It is interesting to see how my life turned into an example of two axioms: ‘If one door shuts, another one opens’ and ‘Age is just a number’. The entrepreneurial venture ‘RZM Torans’ is a tangible example of this.

I was born into a middle-class Zoroastrian family in Madhya Pradesh, where my father was a weaving master in a textile mill. At some point, we moved to Mumbai. I completed my schooling in the big city and went on to graduate in arts from Ruia College. I soon took up my first job in 1967 as a stenographer er at Timber Industries to support myself and my two elder sisters, who could not complete their education. After a rather satisfactory career spanning 38 years, I retired as an office administrator from Lumex Lightings in 2005, at the age of 59.

I soon realised I needed to find something to keep me occupied and active, and generate a sustainable income for my sisters and myself. As a hobby, I used to make kaach na toran (glass bead hangings), a traditional Parsi craft used to beautify door frames and invite warmth, happiness and good fortune into one’s home. The most authentic hangings are made of glass beads; but they are also created in a variety of other beads, designs, shapes and sizes.