Aqsa Chikan Arts

If you look for Room No. 18-a in the Mohammed Ali Building, you’ll find Aqsa Chikan Arts. We are right there in Patel Hostel, which is opposite the Mandvi Post Office in Bhendi Bazar. It’s a very specific spot, and the building has that old Mumbai feel to it. The stairs are a bit narrow, and you have to dodge people sometimes to get up here. Inside the room, it’s mostly just us and the chikan work. There’s fabric draped over the chairs and embroidery frames leaning against the walls. Bhendi Bazar is always humming with energy, and you can hear the traffic from the post office side all day long. We don’t have a fancy entrance or a big sign outside. It’s just a workspace where we spend hours looking at tiny stitches and sorting through bundles of thread. It gets hot in the afternoons, but we have a small fan that does its best. Most of our visitors are people who have heard about us through a friend or someone else in the building. We don’t spend money on ads because we are busy enough just keeping up with the work. It’s a simple setup in an old part of town, and we’ve gotten used to the quirks of the building and the neighborhood over the years. Our door is usually open as long as there is light to see by.