Somewhere in 1965, when he started out to find some guidance to execute a job of glass printing he got, there was hardly anyone to help him out by parting with info on how to do screen printing on glass. Ultimately, he came across Mr Jayanti of Gravity Clocks, who was quite knowledgeable about screen printing as he used to get dials of his watches screen printed at Grafica Display Co. in Mumbai. What started off in such a causal manner went on to become his passion over the years. His thorough knowledge about stencil making also helped him greatly in his endeavour.

“As we were masters in wood carving, I used to prepare hand-cut stencil which usually took two to three days for each screen with the help of hand carving. It was then that pigment paper was got introduced for exposure. It was during this time that Five Star film was introduced. I was very happy to see the finetuned result of using this film and I became a master in Five Star exposing (indirect process),” he said trying to recollect the early days he spend learning screen printing.

Fruits of love:Mr. Ramakdawala with son Siraj

Giving another example of how he picked up and mastered screen printing he said: “In 1977, there was a screen printing show in Mumbai, where I attended a seminar on four-colour halftone screen printing. It gave some insight and technical idea about this wonderful aspect of screen printing. On returning to Ahmedabad, I tried to experiment with my rudimentary knowledge. At that time there was no special inks for four colour halftone screen printing.

However, I used the ‘Excel 555’ series of inks and I got very good result.” “When Chromaline film was introduced, Igot an introduction along with a few samples. However I did not seriously use it as I was already set on Five Star. Slowly, I shifted to direct-indirect stencil exposure.

This grand old man of Ahmedabad screen printing community also believes that there is great future for screen printing, in this digitalisation era. He said: “I believe that digital will not be a real threat for screen printing, but many works like banners, textile printing would be taken over by it. In the long run, digital will compliment screen printing process. I personally believe that there is a bright future for screen printing.”

“Today most of our operations are manual and we are even printing in 3 ft. x 6 ft. acrylic sheets. Our main items are POPs and other advertising materials. POPs like that of Amul Pizza are done by us. Our customers are mainly advertising agencies. What makes us happy is that our customers are satisfied with our quality and timely delivery,” he said. Mr Siraj Ramakdawala, 25, also assists his father in the business, mainly looking after production and marketing activities.

“I would like to say that competition is very much there, but I always go for quality and I get the price I demand from my customers. As a company, we believe in value-added production and innovativeness.”

Despite having problems in picking up tips of screen printing, Mr Ramakdawala has trained many people, including his family members. “Many of my workers are experts in screen printing and having their own printing setups,” said a proud Ramakdawala, who thinks that he also have played his small role in furthering the cause of screen printing, a activity he loves doing for the pure joy of it.