Hyderabad News

  A  Man making manja at Dabeerpura in old city ahead of Sankranti. Photo: Surya Sridhar They hardly have any work to do with Covid hitting businesses hard and machine-made manja flooding market Hyderabad:  Holding a blue pulpy mixture in one hand, Raju steadily applies it to a bunch of strings and simultaneously responding to requests of photographers who click him in action. Raju, in his mid-50s, is from just a handful of manja makers (kite strings) who are continuing with the vocation, which has fallen out of favour and appears to be set for its final days. “I have been into the vocation for the last three decades, and I am a testimony to all the ups and downs of the manja-making business. Now I tell you, after a few years, you won’t find the activity anywhere anymore. Only machine-made manja will be sold in the market,” he said. The craftsmen attribute various factors for the slow death of what was once an immensely popular cottage industry. “This year due to Covid-19...