Visually Challenged, yet a Printing Expert: Meet Kalim Iftikar Shaikh of Mumbai

• Kalim Iftikar Shaikh is the one of the owners and founder of M.K. Stationery and Printer in Parel, Mumbai
• Astonishingly, Kalim is visually impaired and yet he is adept at working with binding, cutting machines
• Today, Kalim's business is well established and he continues to work for its improvement

One of the partners of M.K. Stationery and Printer in Parel, Mumbai; Kalim Iftikar Shaikh is one of the lucky people who loves what he does. As surprising as it may seem, Kalim is visually challenged and yet he manages to work flawlessly and regularly with machines. He operates a semi-automatic cutting machine alongside managing the binding works. The cutting machine, being semi-automatic, helps him to determine when to cut the paper. He said that it may not be the ideal job for a blind person to work with machines but he has learned the techniques very well. He has completed his course of printing machines and other things related to the printing science from the National Association of the Blind. He says that even blind people can now work with the proper usage of their touch, tactile and hearing senses.

When Kalim proposed the idea of opening a printing press, his family members were supportive of him. Kalim received the license for his business in 1984. They struggled hard to establish the printing business for years. Today, his brothers Sarfaaraz and Ibrar help him to run the shop now and are part owners of the press. They have other workers along with themselves who work in the press. However, they are not much dependent upon the other people because they do most of the work by themselves, mentioned the printweek.in report.

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The annual income from the shop is about 20 lakhs. The State Bank of India is a regular at their press. They print their different kinds of forms like pay slips, deposit slips and so on so forth. It prints report cards, notices and other things for different schools. M.K. Press needs about 10 metric tons of paper every year.

Kalim's family is extremely proud of his achievements.

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Talking about the print technology and business Kalim said to printweek.in, "The quality of the paper is the same, but the cost of the paper has risen by 20% as compared to past 15 years. If we speak of one change in the printing industry, the thinking should be changed in offset printing. There is a difference between a material being printed at a local photocopy shop and at the printing press. Today, the value is more for a print at a photocopy shop as compared to an offset printing press. The customer thinks that the cost of investment is the same in a photocopy shop and at a printing press."

– prepared by Atreyee Sengupta, an intern at NewsGram. Twitter: Etrui14

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