ASAD HAJEEBHOY

When stained glass inspired a dream�

In 1979, as a college student, Asad knew that he loved to work with his hands � to create, to understand the workings of materials and machines and to build his own products or enable others to maintain theirs. He began to work with wood as a hobby and sold his handcrafted wood products to pay for his college education. Soon he had taught himself the mechanics of cameras, radios and electronic gadgets. His passion for pushing the frontiers of his knowledge and a chance meeting led him to find a stained glass teacher in Mumbai. With his diligence, he had soon mastered the craft.

His full-time work was in the auto spare parts industry, steel containers for the paint industry, and photography. Soon his calling in stained glass led him to approach one of the interior designers in Mumbai to offer stained glass as a value-added product to clients.

Subsequently, he approached one of the big interior decoration firms in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman to set up a stained glass studio for them. Fascinated by the concept of the kibbutz in Israel, Asad undertook a summer apprenticeship at a stained glass studio there. When he returned to India, enriched with the expertise he had acquired in stained glass, he was determined to set up his own stained glass studio in Bangalore. He worked hard to indigenise production, except for the stained/coloured glass sheets, which still need to be imported. Thus, Glasscrafters was born in 1996, in many senses for Asad, a dream child.