Detangle with Maroof Umar

I have fallen in love with Lucknow , in fact , thanks to his work online , and I really can't wait to get into this conversation . Thank you , marufji , for taking so much time to join us in this episode . You're most welcome on Detangle .

So I was born and brought up here in Lucknow only , and I was a graphic designer . I started as a graphic designer . I started as a graphic designer , okay , and after 10 years in the graphic industry I realized that it's enough of desk job . I mean , how long will we work in front of a desk , in front of a computer ?

I thought when a perspective changed after COVID . I thought that nothing is the same when we are locked in our homes . Covid ke baad , ek perspective change hua . Yeh tab , yeh laga ke koi bhi cheez jo hai wo waise nahi hai , jab hum log apne gharon me bandh ho kaya . Aur yeh laga ke zindagi ki kya maine hai aur logo ke kya maine hai .

Aur tab bhaagdol bhai zindagi se , jab hume kuch wakt mila to , yeh realize hua ke nahi kuch .

I think kuch , kuch aisa karna chahiye , jisse jab hum roz raat me wapas ghar aayen aur soayen , toh andar ek khushi milni chahiye ki aaj humne kuch aisi cheez kariye , jo apne liye kariye , toh isi thought ke saath isi , isi , isi ke saath jazbe , ke saath humne kahania document karna shuru kiya . Aur mujhe ?

I have started documenting stories and I have a couplet , because in Lucknow , if you talk to someone , you will find every other person putting a couplet or a mishra on their words . Yes , absolutely so a couplet which I am very impressed with .

It is something like this Now , I don't even remember , so I mean the stories about which people don't talk , the stories about which people don't want to talk about , or the stories that people have forgotten in today's modern world .

So my job was to tell their stories , the things that we heard from our childhood , from our mother , from our father and from our elders . So those things seem to be irrelevant in today's era .

So I thought , why not tell their story , their visual archive , and make it a documentation , so that maybe the things that we grew up listening to and saw them in front of our eyes , so that the future generations can reach them through this medium or connect with them ? So with this thought , we started it , and this is how it started .

Lekin ye inspiration kaha se aayik ? Did you get inspired by somebody or some event ? How did you collaborate , you know , into this beautiful space of old and new ?

I think the beginning of this is that the first window for every person is their mother , because I'm sure most of the people , when we are young , we take our curiosity about everything to our mother , to our father , to our father , to my elders , when they ask me about the meaning of this , what is this ? What is this ? Then ?

The same thing happened with me when we were young the stories of my mother , the way she used to tell us , the way she used to introduce everything to us , that look , we are in Lucknow today . Apartment culture has become . Today , single families have become . In our time it was the movement of joint family .

We used to live together , we used to have a neighborhood . So in the neighborhood we used to consider everyone as a family . So we used to know everyone that this is Manish uncle's house , this is our grandmother's house here , this is the house of our grandmother . Shahid Bhai lives here , rishi Bhai lives here .

So this was a kind of inclusion of the neighborhood . So in that way , when someone passed from there that now see , Ruhi Dhunaai is passing through the bushes and in summers your Khoya Patti will go . So all these things passed in front of us and when we grew up and when we went out , we saw the outside world .

We thought that all these things are not there anywhere , whether in small cities or in old cities . These things were present then and still they have some traces . So the thing that my mother told me , I thought that maybe these things are very important to tell the world because people don't talk about them .

In general , they don't think that they have that much Instagrammable content that they will get reach from , that they will get views from . And this is a very slow-paced content , very easy , and this is a very slow-paced content which you can watch very easily .

But it's because nowadays it's a very fast time where our attention span has become of 5-6 seconds In that era . If these things are also talked about and I am surprised that there are people who listen to this If people are watching , then I would be very happy .

At least , if people are watching what we are making and are able to connect with it , I feel I think my job is done .

So the first thing came out of there , and the second thing was the curiosity behind knowing everything . If this is a neighborhood , if its name is Phool Bagh , then why is it like this ? If this place is called Sundhi Tola , then why is its name like this ?

So these questions were always in my childhood , and when we started reading about it , we got another conflict . We got the idea that when we visited any building , the guide stories . There were very interesting stories . They were stories that if a person hears he will not be able to forget .

But when we started reading them in real , we found out that it is an oral history and that tradition is not validated anywhere . So even then , I was very surprised that what we have been hearing since childhood , all those things have been rejected .

So this started to push me a little bit , but then I realized that these two traditions float separately One is oral history and the other is factual history .

So then I started reading more and then I started doing research and when I saw that people even today I don't take myself so seriously , but when I see people reading captions of videos and then when they reply in the comments , then I started feeling that this is a serious thing and everything should be backed up by facts and there should be citations .

So then we started reading historians , books , gazetteers Even today as my priority . I don't refer online sources , I don't get inspired by them and do things . Because it's an open source , anyone can go there and edit and usually the algorithm there is designed in such a way that the spicy things rank above . And for good facts you have to go to the top .

That's why I always prefer old school method of reading . There are books , there are gazetteers and the papers that people have presented . I still follow them for my research work .

It takes a lot of effort . There must be a lot of challenges . Sometimes , if you are emotionally going through a low moment , does your content change ? Do you feel yourself drawn to something different at that time ?

90% are those things , those emotions that we see in the field , that remain within us and that changes our perspective of seeing things . But yes , definitely , puri , puri din kaam karte hain . Aur unko koi recognize ? Tak nahi karta Maitla hai Main aise artisan se mila Ke jino ne shayad Un saariyo pe kaam kiya hai Jo Bollywood ke naam war Logo ne pehni hai .

Par unka koi recognition nahi hai Unki mehnta na unko nahi milta To ye realize hota Ye kitne privilege me . Ham log hai Ke sh that if we make a video today then everyone will watch it , they will call us and give us an award and a stage and all that .

But I still feel that then we get more motivation , that if we can be the voice of these people , then maybe we can correct that guilt in our hearts that at least we did our work and the rest is in the hands of the world . It is our duty to change our perspective for them .

It seems so simple , but it's so deep that there are so many people who have art in their hands and until that art is not recognized , that art will not be able to survive Today , if we want to give all this to our children , if we want them to be able to see or enjoy these things today , it is India's heritage , it is India's culture , but if we don't

bring it forward , then there is no scope for its survival .

Do you have to create a balance in between all the time ?

He is independent , no client is giving me money for that and I decide for him that I have to put this shot like this and I have to say so many things , and for the things I have to say , there is no one behind me who can control that , and without any filter .

If I am taking that to the audience , then I think for me in today's age , the definition of creativity is this and I do the same thing that I like . So I think it is for everyone out there who wants to start content creation .

If you're not enjoying it , if you're not getting happy , then you won't be able to do it for a long time and then you'll compromise . So make it for others later . First make it for yourself . If you're happy , then that happiness , that energy I'm a very firm believer of energy and I believe that energy always transfers from one form to the other .

If you're happy , if you've made anything with happiness , then automatically that happiness will be transferred to its viewers and they'll be happy . Yes , absolutely .

When you don't have an audience , when you don't have a job to show , it's very difficult to make people believe , because technology has advanced so much in your era that people look at every camera from a doubt , every camera . They are not reporting anything , they are not showing anything that they are not concerned about .

In the beginning we had to face a lot of challenges . People did not give us permission , people did not give us access . But gradually , when an audience is built , we start receiving messages that we have a good thing If we can show the world through your platform .

So I think these changes are coming to know that , okay , we have a good thing on your platform if we can show the world . So I think these changes come and along with that , logistically , we have a lot of issues we think we used to have initially .

Even today , because my core content is independent and my attempt is that I keep it 100% independent until it is in my hands my core content and I don't take any sponsorship in it , so that I can show the world in an unfiltered way . So that's why many times a lot of challenges come when we have to shoot outside .

We have to take a good team , but at the end of the day we take it as a process . We take it as a learning curve . We take it as a learning curve and every day it's a new day for us . We don't plan too much , we try to do something every morning that makes us happy in the end , and I think we see the challenges in the same way .

If you're reaching somewhere and that thing is not happening that way , then maybe there will be something better in it . So we don't press it too much and we try to do it in an organic way .

But when I opened this comment box I was so happy to open it that it filled so much positivity . So that's what I told you and I think a lot of people will believe this that always if any work is done with good intention , then its intention , its energy , is definitely transferred in front of you .

If my motive is to spread happiness , then obviously the people in front of you will also see it from that perspective and they will also spread happiness in it . So till now I haven't had any such trolling and I hope that my motive is not too much of a trolling scope .

If it is , I'd take it as a positive criticism , because freedom of speech is for everyone and every person wants to give their perspective . If they feel that they should give his perspective in a different way that doesn't match mine , then I welcome it with open hands , but I still feel that my work makes people happy .

And when we meet them personally , then we get to see their personal side . We get to learn a lot from them . Even after all this . He is so grounded and how he looks at the world , his view of the world that he looks at , his view of the world that he looks at that really impresses us . And that's it , I think I , because I really like food .

So when we worked with Ranveer Raar , I had a lot of fun Because I am his biggest fan and his biggest fan is my mom . So he had a lot of fun Because I have worked with so many celebrities and stars . My mom never asked me to meet anyone , only Ranveer Rar . When I shot his shoot , he told me you didn't get me to meet him , so it won't be right .

So I think that was my favorite .

Is there any dream that you have manifested and it has been fulfilled ?

As you just saw , there was a trend . It was a very small trend . There was a kid's toffee Kinder Joy , harry Potter's figure was being released in it . For that the entire internet went crazy . I mean , people were buying it crazily . Yes , my sister , I think , bought a whole box of it . She started collecting it . So I thought this is an internet world .

A youngster who will go crazy can change that thing night after night . So I still feel that the day youngsters for these handmade products , for these local for local get puzzled , that day we will change the entire ecosystem . That day they will get fair wages , that day they will get respect .

And that day when we get so much boost to our economy that it can't be possible with anything else , that's right .

Charmin , if you had to give some advice to your younger self , if you met 12-year-old Maruf ji today , what would you say ?

I think about it every day and I think that in so many years , the one thing that I have tried to adopt and still trying to do , is that maybe any person who is in his early I think teenage or early twenties , for him the most important thing is that he impacts his decisions by thinking of others , and I think this should not happen .

So I also advise myself that it is not right to impact your decisions by thinking of others . What people will say , what people will think , what will happen to them ? It doesn't matter , because maybe today people don't have the time to think about others .

People are so much engrossed , they are so much busy in their own self that they don't have time to think about others , and for that we stop . So many things , change so many things that , okay , I wore this today , I look like this today because of this . What will my front people think about me ? But that doesn't happen at all .

Every person thinks about himself . He is looking at himself in the mirror . Maybe if you see him , he will remember you for 5-6 seconds and then forget . And just for that , we make so many things , so many mountains in our mind and we don't take our life to the direction we want to take it . So my advice would be that don't think about anyone .

Do what you want to do , and only then you can make your life very beautiful .

Okay , marufji , you must have seen a physical first aid box it will be there in the house too in which you keep band-aids , antiseptics , everything you know . There are some days when we get a little injury . We don't need a doctor , we can fix it ourselves , but we feel like such a box .

If you have a mental first aid box sometimes you are sad and you are happy to open that box immediately then what would you like to keep in such a mental first aid box .

Because in today's era , when one person doesn't have time for the other person , then if those people get together , those friends get together because there is nothing more beautiful than friendship . There is nothing in the world and it is very rare to get real friendship or good friendship .

Because in this social media era , people are so envious about each other Because the line has ended here Now . Earlier it used to be that the work you do or if you have any skill set , then it used to take a lot of time to acquire that skill set .

But today , because of content creation now everyone is a content creator , everyone has a mobile phone , everyone can do that so that barrier is getting over . That's why people are becoming envious to each other . That's why true friendships have decreased . The good ones , the ones you can talk to with an open heart , have decreased .

I still remember when we used to have a keypad phone or when it was the time of TCO , when we were not exposed to so many technologies . Then we used to talk to our friends all day long , sit with them , share everything with them . So you don't get that feeling anywhere .

So if you get that selected friend or that outlet in today's time , so I think keep that in mind and respect it a lot , because it's very rare .

They don't understand that they don't do a job , they don't stick to a job , they don't manage a career . What is going on ? And on the other hand , there is Gen Z who say we want to do so much but we are not able to understand . According to me , the generation gap has increased a lot . Earlier there used to be a generation gap every 10 years .

Nowadays it happens every 2 years . This generation has some qualities . There was a very beautiful song earlier . I don't know if you have heard it . Maybe we thought Basi was a wood and we couldn't hear his sound , so this generation . We are not able to see their qualities . They do very quick work . They bring maximum results in less effort .

We have to understand their generation now . This AI generation has also become a big problem for them , but they are enduring it . Today , if we smoke cigarettes in front of our children for 10 years , and after 10 years , if they get a lung disease , what will they say when they grow up ? Papa , you knew it . Mama , you knew , knew .

Why did you smoke in front of us ? We were troubled . Today , these children are so small but we have held the phone in their hands . We have given them technology . What will they say after 10 years ? What has affected our mind ? You knew . Why did you give us the phone ? So today , our responsibility is to explain them a little .

Teach them to use technology properly , like how they drive a car wearing a seatbelt . By the way , they should use online seatbelts . Use some safety . This generation will go very far . They just need a little blessing and explanation from the elders . Whatever you have , we have , they just need to get it .

Ke ashirwaad aur samjhane ki zerurat hai Jo aapke paas hai , humare paas hai , bas inhe mil jaye .

Aur uski ek jo apni virtual duniya hai usme khushi doon rahe hain aur apni reality se ko andekha kar rahe hain . Kya aisa hai , ya ho ta ja rahe hai , bad raha hai kuch hattak ho raha hai .

By the way , instagram and other social media platforms are all constructed to be addictive . Today , because it's free , we ourselves are own product . I am the person people want to reach out to as an advertiser .

So the day everyone understands that we have to use social media as it is , as if we are using an addictive substance with complete control and with complete understanding , it can be a very beautiful space . I met a lot of good people online Today . I met you only because of Instagram . Be a very beautiful space no head , no legs , nothing .

And nowadays there are AI reels coming out . It's visible that that monkey is made by AI , but that monkey is eating bananas . Everyone is watching , so this is not real , but this is addictive . So we need to accept social media as an addiction and then treat it accordingly , right . But , it was so beautiful , Mr Maroof , to meet you like this .

Men are supposed to be strong supporters , caregivers , protectors . When they say that today we are not feeling good , their employers get upset , their family stops trusting them . They don't get the support that a lady still gets .

You see , a simple thing when you get married , the bride and groom both have a lot of emotions in their minds . But a bride can cry openly , can talk to her friends , but can a groom go and say that there is something wrong in my mind ?

But if you can talk , like you said , if a friend who doesn't judge you , by the way , think if society doesn't judge us , then even men will get support . What a beautiful thing you said it was a lot of fun . Marukji , talking to you , I mean meeting . I hope that many people watch your page , follow your beautiful work , support Artisans through you .

Tell us the spelling of your Instagram handle so that everyone can easily follow .