By FRED CONTRADA fcontrada@repub.com (mailto:fcontrada@repub.com )
NORTHAMPTON – Basha is gone, but his rugs are still working their magic.
First Churches of Northampton is hoping to augment its capital campaign by holding a drawing on Sunday featuring a 9-by-13-foot Bukhara rug donated by the late Bashir Ahamed. The woolen, hand-knotted rug was made in India in the 1950s and has an estimated retail value of $5,600. The churches is making 100 tickets available at a donation of $50 per ticket.
Ahamed, known to one and all in Northampton as Basha, died of cancer in the summer. A native of Kashmir, Ahamed was the proprietor of Basha’s Oriental Rugs on Main Street. The store featured an assortment of rugs from Afghanistan, Iran and other far-flung places, but it also doubled as a tea room where Ahamed would engage visitors in philosophical discussions.
The Rev. Peter B. Ives, the pastor of First Churches, got to know Ahamed in 1990 during a spree of hate graffiti in the city. Ahamed’s store was one of the places that was vandalized. He voiced his concerns to then-Mayor David B. Musante Jr., who suggested a meeting of community leaders at First Churches.
That meeting was the impetus for the Committee for Northampton, a group that publicly spoke out against racism in the community. Ahamed, who loathed discrimination, was heartened by the support.
“Basha was forever grateful for that,” said Ives. It was also the beginning of a long friendship between Ahamed and Ives.
“I would stop over there and have a cup of tea,” he said. “Then many others started doing that. We would all go over there and talk about religion and politics and the issues of racism. He loved to talk about Hinduism and Islam and Judaism and Christianity.”
When he learned that he had cancer last year, Ahamed summoned Ives for another cup of tea.
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“He said he wanted to give a gift for our support and help the First Churches capital campaign,” Ives said.
The church had found itself in financial straits after chunks of plaster began falling from the ceiling of its main sanctuary in March 2007. After examining the problem, structural engineers delivered the bad news: The church needed a new roof. The price tag was estimated at $2 million.
First Churches has since borrowed the money and made the repairs. To date, it has raised $1.5 million.
The drawing for Basha’s rug is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. in its Lyman Hall at 129 Main St. Ahamed’s son, Hafiz, will draw the winning ticket. For information, contact Gina-Louise Sciarra at (413) 584-5121 or glsciarra@firstchurches.org.
