Abdul Majeed, an 85-year-old award-winning Kashmiri artisan, is among the last masters of Aari (Staple) work—a delicate form of landscape embroidery once celebrated across the Valley and beyond. He learnt the craft in his youth, at a time when Aari work was rising in popularity in Kashmir, inspired in part by the efforts of a foreign woman, Ms. Helen, who helped popularize the technique. Over the decades, Majeed’s embroidered landscapes, rich in detail and rooted in Kashmir’s natural beauty, brought him national acclaim. His work even reached the hands of Indira Gandhi, who was so impressed by his embroidered depiction of Hari Parbat during her 1983 visit to Srinagar that she offered him a government job, which he humbly declined.

Having spent a lifetime dedicated to Aari work, Majeed now looks upon the craft with concern. The growing influx of machine-made products threatens the survival of this traditional art form, undermining the painstaking handwork that artisans like him have preserved for generations. As he continues his practice in old age, Abdul Majeed stands as both a custodian of Kashmir’s rich embroidery heritage and a poignant voice warning of its fragile future.