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Meet the ‘Tyre Man’ of Silchar who turns scrap into swanky furniture

Silchar: There has been a paradigm shift of struggles as far as the age of Netaji and today is concerned. While the great son of the soil and the pride of Bengalis all over the world, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose sacrificed his life for the sake of freeing his motherland from the clutches if imperialism, the problems we face today mostly deal with climate changes, ecological balance and natural catastrophes. Well, with years of research and environment meetings have come to a common conclusion that the simplest answer to all these problems to a great extent is recycling. While the west is busy setting up multi-million dollars worth recycling business, India too is making efforts of its own.

Interestingly, there is one such recycle enthusiast from a tiny remote corner of Silchar who believes that recycling is not just a process, but a healthy way of life. Meet Md. Dilwar Ahmed Laskar from Silchar’s Madhurapul area who is a tyre repairer by profession and a master recycler by heart who turns scrap tyres into beautiful pieces of furniture and useful household items.

Speaking about his passion for recycling, Dilwar said, “Since the last two years I have started making furniture and household items from scrap tyres. Being a tyre repairer, this came naturally and with a bit of imagination and a strong will to give back something to nature I ended up making useful items out of these useless products.”

Reiterating his thoughts he said further that “Tyres contain very harmful chemicals and other poisonous substances that can release if being burnt. As tyres do not decay naturally, they are mostly burnt causing a lot of toxic pollution. Hence I came to think how to create something useful from these….and voila…the idea of furnitures popped up.”

Dilwar, after a few months of experimenting came up with beautiful designs of items like flower pots, chair, stool, centre table, even beds and dining tables. He says that till date he has sold almost close to 500 items that he created from recycled tyres. But business is slow, he says. The lack of investments and a steady demand has restricted him to experiment further with his creativity.

“Generally the time required to build the products depend on what is to be made. While a flower pot may take a few hours, a bed or a center table may take up a week of work. But due to financial restraints, I am unable to unleash my creativity in terms of new designs and products.” Dilwar said.

It seems that men like Dilwar Ahmed Laskar really want to make a change in the society and such tiny steps are precursors to the giant leap of development that the country is yet to witness. What better homage can we give to our beloved leader Netaji Subhash than a brighter and greener tomorrow to our future generation who would carry the pride of the motherland on their young chests!  

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Siddharth Deb's picture

A masters in mass communication from NIMC Kolkata, Siddharth is a journalist and specialises in insurgency and conflict management. He can be reached at patriot.siddharth@gmail.com

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