Gurinder Singh, now 70 years old started working in his father’s (Kulwant Singh) shop at the age of 20. Their shop located in the Akali Market, Amritsar has been making sign boards and stencils. Both handmade, have now lost out to the computer made large flex signs and signboards.

Yashpal, who has been working in this shop for the last 43 years, learnt the art from Kulwant Singh and Gurinder Singh. He says that at one time they had 15 people working daily from morning to evening, with barely time to rest. Now they are just two, and in a good week may have work for two days. Yashpal continues to hammer thin metal sheets on the well aged and scored wooden block.

Both Yashpal and Gurinder, with their basic schooling could not keep up with the computer age. Also they did not have the kind of large working space required to paint or print large sign boards as required today. Children of both are now working in different jobs. Yashpal’s son works in a bank in Gurgaon and his daughter is married to an artist in Delhi.

The Akali Market itself is in shambles and maybe replaced with a multi-storey Inn by the SGPC.