FORGOTTEN SERVICES

 FORGOTTEN SERVICES

As a nation, we have made grand strides in several fronts like housing, transport, health care and communication. Yet, somewhere along the line, small services of such requirements for mending foot wear, Children dress, lead-coating to brass / copper vessels and umbrellas with distorted frame of metals with-in, seem to have vanished into the oblivion. To use an expression from “Biology”, such services were marvelous examples of ‘Commensalism’ where two different organisms exist by mutual help. Honestly, there is a silent demand for such ‘mending services’ in most towns and cities. We have come under the penumbra of social habits which dissuade using ‘repaired’ or corrected items which symbolize poverty.  How much of usable utilities are discarded by the mere importance accorded to ‘social assessment’.  Let us not forget that on all major events of social gatherings like Weddings, we need those mega containers to hold high volume food items without spoilage. Friends may dismiss my contention that these days we get things done by agencies [Wedding contractors] and we need no such vessels. True, but how many of our ancestral vessels are lying unused in our lumber stock or have been dispensed with for a throw-away price of negligible value. Now we cannot hope to buy even a pair of them except by a hefty payment. To keep them unused or part with them for paltry amounts is a colossal injustice.

The vessel upkeep by lead-coating was once a regular routine done at our door steps just on the road edge by digging a hole to hold charcoal; the burning charcoal was ‘fanned’ by blowing air through a mini bellow operated by the person’s wife. Only if the vessel is heated to high temperature lead-coating can be done by spreading a   uniform layer of molten lead swiftly and deftly over the interior of the hot vessel to make the inner surface lead-coated and fit for food storing. In local parlance, the craft was named ‘kalaai smear’ or ‘eeya poochu’ the equivalent of ‘spreading or coating with lead’ A small family of 2 adults and two children , a bellow, lead metal stock, smearing powder[Ammonium chloride] , charcoal and tools to clasp hot vessel were the  kit of the Lead-coating artisan. The culture of using lead-coated vessels has already been given a ‘go-by’ and such families are rare to be seen now-a-days. With Stainless steel  as the most popular domestic utensils, the need for lead coating is a distant dream; naturally the craftsmen have had an unceremonious exit from the avocation. It is hard to locate such service providers even by man hunt.    

CORNER COBBLER

Another working group was that of the Cobbler, who used to sit along footpaths, with fond hopes of someone making use of their services. They prefer to stay at intersections of roads, so as to enhance the scope of picking up more work. As the customer has to wait for completion of work, they select platforms along corners and sit from morning to night. The then cobblers used to mend all defects in footwear, stitch together torn off pieces and carry out patch work to hide defects in soles of footwear/ shoes or replace buckles or drill new holes to facilitate use of buckles.  People   were not unhappy of having to use mended footwear. Their consideration was for justification to any expenditure. So long as the material was good enough for the purpose, they were mentally reconciled to their use.  All such practical advantages have no value for the present-day youth; they deem it apt to be the most ‘presentable’ at any cost. They are not unhappy to invest large sums of money on such outfits as footwear. There is a huge shift in attitude and even the ‘downtrodden’ feel it an insult to accept old dress, used foot wear and the like. In place of use and throw, the practice of use or throw has come about. So, the very working group [cobblers] has wound itself up from such activity.   In all metros, the urgency to rush for work keeps the clan [cobblers] alive. Along the route to stations and at the stations, these men sit in a row and have a long stream of visitors in the mornings for getting their shoes polished; the customer stands, planting the feet alternately on the ‘low’ work bench. By quick polishing they help the visitor to  catch the train in time. Other than this work force, there is a gross decline of them for want of patronage by consumers.

Prof. K. Raman