By Eric Calvin Ranee
NONGPOH: Dignity of labour is a rare commodity these days. No work is superior or inferior in itself. Work is worship. Every work has some dignity attached to it.
This scribe while visiting the weekly market of Nongpoh held at Iew Mawlong recently came across an elderly Khasi man earning his livelihood for the past few years by mending peoples’ footwear.
The fifty-year-old cobbler sets up his makeshift stall on the roadside every weekly market day and tends to his customers.
In a chit chat with this scribe, the cobbler identified himself as Khlain Jala from Lad Umsaw. He said that he travels from his village every week to attend the weekly market and attends to the needs and requirements of the customers, mostly local people, who he says, duly acknowledge humble service.
Asked how he took up the work of mending shoes, Jala replied that he has seen that people come from outside the State and many of them earn their livelihood by mending shoes. “There were no Khasi cobblers and I decided that I should learn the trade so that we won’t have to depend on outsiders for such works,” he added.
On his income from his profession, Jala, a father of three children, replied that he earns around Rs 500 per day out of which he has to cover for the cost of the raw materials such as rubber, threads, adhesives and nails.
He also said that he supplements his income by mending umbrellas, making pots and also rearing cattle in his village at Lad Umsaw.
Asked whether he has any message for the unemployed youths of the State, the cobbler, who spared his valuable time from his hectic business, appealed to the youths to ‘take up any mean of livelihoods as there is no dearth of work here and there is a dignity of labour in every work’. “Please shy away from landing yourself in undesirable camps,” he added.
On how he feels about being a cobbler, Jala said, “I am proud to be cobbler as I earn my livelihood by honest means and I have been able to keep my kitchen fire burning for the past few years till now.”