thanks to wifienabled machines and trendy sewing schools more men are taking to needleworkparvez caliph is not your everyman for he has taken up a hobby that has for centuries been associated with the everywoman sewing the 37yearold who monitors the setting up of wind farms across the country winds down occasionally after work not with netflix but a sewing machinesewing and other forms of needlework until the global 20th century was a craft heavily lined with gender and class politics a serious occupation for men a preoccupation for women rich women sewed for leisure poor women sewed to survive doing piecework at home before the industrial revolution which then transported them from their slums to mechanised sweatshops massproduced garments and linen made sewing and tailoring fringe affairs feminists saw it as regressive and anachronistic labour some men did sew but they were the exception it was only in the 21stcentury that enterprise and individuality brought back needlework as a creative craft free of gendered buttonholes men in fact have brought a new sensibility to sewing introducing motifs and designs skulls bikes etc not commonly found in classic embroidery canon until last year the bandrabased caliphs sewing skills extended to fixing a button or mending a tear then he stepped into the hab a haberdashery and workshop centre run by usha the sewing machine makers in bandra he signed up for a couple of beginner courses in stitchery and purchased a sewing machine i have expensive appliances at home like a pair of glass speakers by harmon kardon and i wanted dust covers for them instead of calling a tailor i decided to stitch them myself says caliph who aims to stitch his own shirts one day caliph who also plays the guitar and cooks sees sewing as therapeuticfor hobbyists needlecraft is a form of creative expression or mode of meditation often both selftaught embroiderer asif shaikh likens it to vipassana he started sewing as a young boy in ahmedabad a weak constitution prevented me from doing strenuous physical activities so i would sit on my balcony and sew even though people asked me why i was doing womens work he says shaikhs embroidered art now sells for several lakhsbehind parin galas decision to take a stab at needlework was a desire to gift his 3yearold daughter reeva a selfmade birthday present last year shes a fan of peppa pig so without telling my wife i came to bombay for a days workshop at the hab where i machineembroidered the character on a towel under the guidance of the instructor it took no more than half an hour says the superbike dealer from pune whose daughter now wont have any other towel but the one her father made her gala believes if there is anything that can induce men to needlework it is the new and improved sewing machine sleek wifienabled automatic contraptions that can embroider digitised designs almost independently even as you cook a casserole in the