[Reader-list] "I make joints between parts"

[Shveta]

I make joints between parts
by Lakhmi Chand Kohli[*]

New places carry memories of the old. I create freshness by placing old
materials into new places. I guess, in this way, I rub some of the aura of
the old into the new. I am an electrician... Maybe! You see, this name has
been given to me by people. I only make transformers. I buy parts from the 
market, make transformers out of them, and sell them in the market. 
Because I have been doing this for a long time, I have many skills of an 
electrician.

Earlier, people used to call me to their homes to take care of any
electrical problems. But I don't go to peoples' houses any more. I have
nothing to gain from it. It's not that one doesn't earn well in this way.
It's just that things spoil again a few days after I fix them. People get
abusive when this happens. "Rascal, what did you do that it got spoiled
again?" So I just stopped that kind of work. I still go to some peoples'
houses, but only a select few. You see, people don't have much time to meet
others; so I make meetings possible for myself through my work.

Making transformers is my work. The beginning was very difficult. Because I
didn't repair transformers, but made them and sold them in the market.
Buying supplies without an income was difficult. Somehow, I managed.
Initially, my earnings were little. Because to make a mark in the market,
my supplies had to be of a good quality and I had to put them together
myself" very carefully, minutely.

For a transformer, one needs a circuit board (Rs. 27, Anchor company),
cabinet (Rs. 50), main switch (Rs. 30), fine wire (Rs. 2 per meter),
transformer card (Rs, 35) and coin, rotor, meter etc. In all the cost price
is Rs. 150-200. Moreover, it would take me two days to assemble a
transformer. I would sell each between Rs 400-600. I used to get orders for
numbers to be made, and couldn't defend my interests in the market.

But I am doing well today, even though the cost of raw materials is high. I
am faster at my work; my hands are more skilled. I can turn out three to
four transformers in a single day. I also have helpers.

Sometimes I get very angry at my helpers. Because they work like girls and
also act very smart! They dress up like heroes, and worry they will dirty
their clothes. It's amazing how scared they are of dirt! But they will
learn and get used to all this. I know because when I was younger, and
worked as a help in my master's shop, I was just like them.

In the beginning when I used to make joints between parts to make a
transformer, I used to feel life was joining and becoming seamless. Like
different parts being held together, still retaining their difference, but
making a whole. This shape, the "whole", used to appeal to me. You see,
that's because back home, in our village in Punjab, my father and his
younger brother's families used to live together. When I decided to shift
to Delhi, my father's younger brother's son asked me, "What shall we do
with your room and land?" 

I replied, "Plough the land, and give the room out on rent. We will divide 
whatever is earned equally between us".

He said, "That only works in your favour! Why should I do the work, and
you earn from it?" 

My father heard this and left the room. Our relationship with my father's 
younger brother's family has never been the same since then. 
Whenever I join parts together, I am reminded of this relationship. 
I wish there could be some joint I could connect our two families with, 
filling the cracks that have been formed between us.

But forget all this! I have formed so many new relationships and earned so
many different names with this work that sometimes my own name seems
strange to me! Time transforms a personality. And along with that, or maybe
because of that, one gathers so many different kinds of names as years
pass, and the meaning and significance of each name also keeps changing.
But what is most significant to me is who chooses to call me by which
particular name. You see, no one is called by the same name by everyone.

Is it that when you form a relationship with someone, the name you are
called by changes, or is it that as the name you are called by changes, so
does the relationship?

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[*]

http://sarai.var.cc/source_material/the_old_and_the_new_by_lakhmi_from_broadsheet_no_3.html.html

[Translation by shveta and frankhuzur at rediffmail.com]

Text from Issue # 3 of Cybermohalla Broadsheet, "Bade Bade Shehron Mein Kuchh Namm Baatein".
The issue engaged with the technological universe in the localities in which the CM labs are located.

Editors: Lakhmi Kohli, Yashoda Singh, Love Anand, Suraj Rai.

Write to cybermohalla at sarai.net

For more texts, see http://sarai.var.cc
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