IN a small shop that is just a doorway in a narrow lane of Surat�s congested Bhagal area, Sohonlal Saroya from Benares sits earning Rs. 35 a day by performing a delicate and back-breaking task. He is the master karigar of A. G. R. Varqwallah, makers of the edible silver foil known in India as varq.

Varq is used as a garnish over several Indian foods. This is edible silver, hammered out of small ball of the precious white metal into thin, tissue like leaves, by placing the ball in a deer-skin pouch and carefully hitting it with a heavy, metal hammer for hours.

This is what Sohanlal Saroya has been doing for years, making varq with a hand that is heavy in experience but light in its touch. This is his family business. He learnt it from his father. And he will pass it down to his son. Though it requires great skill, his work is dismissed in the Indian industry as unskilled labour, and he earns a pittance for what he delivers.

What Sohanlal Saroya delivers is 160 extremely fragile sheets of silver after three hours of non-stop hammering the leather pouch. Varq is cheap. Sixteen sheets of the edible cost only Rs. 23. Gold sheets, which also this Benarasi karigar makes, are more expensive. Four sheets cost Rs. 100. �But this is pure 24 carat gold,� Sohanlal Saroya says.

Both the edible silver and gold foils have shelf lives of many years. They are bought from small Varqwallah works like where Sohanlal Saroya is employed by halwais making Indian sweets and ayurvedic medicine people. �Very often families come and buy them to decorate their meals on festivals,� he says. �It has no aroma or taste and is just a garnish.�