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

[Isaac souweine]

Yes - this is really great. The voice captured is compelling, a snippet of a
life that is at once small like the coils of wire and large like a firmly
stated, long held belief. Surely aided by the translation. I too look
forward to more of the same.

Thanks,
Isaac


On 2/21/06, Aarti <aarti at sarai.net> wrote:
>
> Dear Shveta,
>
> Thank you for this post. What I find is the evocative, almost intimate,
> nature of this description of a realtionship with work and technology.
> There is something very delicate, nazuk, about the section on his
> thinking about the relationship between the making of circuits and an
> evocation of a ruptured realtionship back home.
>
> Thank you again
> really looking forward to reading more such accounts
> Warmly
> Aarti
>
>
> Shveta wrote:
>
> > 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?
> >
> > --------------------------------------------
> > [*]
> >
> >
> 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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