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They<br />
wove a<br />
labor<br />
of love<br />
BY CHARLIE MCKENNA<br />
The late Aftab Bashir has no regrets about his<br />
money he poured into the business.<br />
497 Humphrey Street, Swampscott, MA<br />
781-599-3411<br />
Mon - Th 9-5, Fri 9-3 781-581-7200<br />
Even though The Rug Gallery was<br />
only open for a short time, Fahad<br />
Bashir has no regrets about the money<br />
he poured into the business. Bashir<br />
ran the business with his father, Aftab,<br />
who passed away in June after a battle<br />
with pancreatic cancer, and while they<br />
had a difficult time achieving liftoff in<br />
Swampscott, the business was a “labor<br />
of love.”<br />
“He always loved art and he really<br />
had a great, great collection of wonderful,<br />
usable art, which is rugs.I also happen<br />
to share the same passion, of these<br />
wonderful pieces, and really, the idea<br />
was … we were looking at … what's<br />
kind of another business that we could<br />
do?” Bashir, who now works in tax mitigation<br />
and wealth accumulation, said in<br />
an interview. “About 10 - 15 years ago,<br />
I used to be a part of the business you<br />
know, so it was one of those homecoming<br />
things … and we opened it up with<br />
a lot of excitement and it was really<br />
great.”<br />
Aftab Bashir, over the course of his<br />
life, operated four rug galleries across<br />
the state, with locations in Falmouth,<br />
Winchester, Natick, and Swampscott.<br />
Fahad Bashir said he and his father<br />
struggled to gain traction in Swampscott,<br />
despite a location on the busy<br />
Humphrey Street, with few customers<br />
walking in to browse the wide variety of<br />
rugs Aftab Bashir had collected over the<br />
decades.<br />
32 | <strong>01907</strong>
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