Global talent for local prices

Guru, a soft- spoken, shy man with an endearing smile, is a sound engineer who can put an IIT graduate to shame. I call on his services every time I have a problem with my sound system at home and he never disappoints. Most times, he adds some new bells and whistles to my system that I didn’t even expect. The last time it was a device that made it possible to switch effortlessly between audio, video and TV, another time it was a cable that collected all the untidy wiring and made it look like something out of NASA.

But Guru has never seen the inside of an engineering college, and is totally self taught. How did he acquire his skill sets? He smiles amiably, shrugging off his talent with characteristic modesty. “I just picked it all up along the way, watching people in the business work,” he says. Imagine if Guru had been to college. In a just world he would have got a scholarship to MIT and then invented a speaker system to rival Bose.

Instead, he rattles around on a two wheeler, going from house to house doing job work for a pittance. Mumbai is full of Gurus. The plumber, the electrician, the carpenter - all men with rare talent and admirable skill sets, selling their expertise for a pittance!

Moti, the carpenter who has his workshop in the ground floor of my building, fashions the most challenging blocks of wood in to exquisite tables, chairs, bookshelves and sofas; he learnt his craft from his father, a senior and highly  regarded member of his trade, who died a few years ago. I see Moti in his little workshop, sawing wood till the wee hours of the morning. He eats and sleeps in the workshop most nights, rarely going home to his kholi. In the last two decades, through economic reform, through the rising Sensex, and financial boom, Moti’s life hasn’t changed. He only works harder, longer and seems more tired than ever.

So I wonder: who’s making the money that the papers in Mumbai report about? Amongst the people I’ve mentioned above, I don’t really see any visible signs of improvement in lifestyle, or spending. What they charge for their services hasn’t increased commensurate with India’s economic growth pattern. For all practical purposes they have fallen outside the pale of the great consumer boom.

And yet, these are the very people who form Mumbai’s back bone. On their skills - and many others like them- is Mumbai’s success founded. The little people. The men and women who make our lives efficient, simpler and easier.
What a shame that this city does not reward them
adequately!

—s_malavika@dnaindia.net