The cobbler

23 December 2016 at 22:12 ·

Told my daughter how the school children were friends with the lady near teh traffic signal on the footpath who stitched my slippers, and how the children call out to her as Aunty, and how she banters easily with them.

She said, 'School ABC, isnt it', mentioning an 'ordinary' school there. I asked her why. She retorted, 'You think children from school XYZ would, is it ?' mentioning an upper class school in the area.

She is right. Anyway children from XYZ school moved in chauffer driven cars, well protected from footpaths and footpath people.

We craft our children according to the choices we make for them.

23 December 2016 at 18:54 ·
I went to the cobbler today as my slippers were coming apart and needed stitching urgently. She's my friend. When the poor people make friends with me, despite my own affluence which i well know is responsible for their own poverty, I am always deeply grateful. And happy. Despite the underlying guilt I carry.

She was as bright as ever, with her welcoming smile as she sat under a black umbrella which gave her some partial shade. Her beauty, her smile, the two brass noserings, the three pair of brass earrings, the glass bangles, the toe rings, and the rose in her hair - all were as ever.

As she sewed deftly, she asked after me. And told me her stories. How her husband works as a watchman in Hindu School, and so told her to look after the cobbler work. How her three children are in college and how hard it was to make ends meet. How she is from Thiruvanmalai, and she will go for New Year. How the rent of their home here is too much of a strain, and how they have finally built a small home for themselves in their village in Thiruvanmalai. She said that they have never had a home of their own, but now they have one.

As the children from the nearby school passed by she called out to a couple cheerfully, and a few called out to her, "Aunty, nalla irikengala ?'. ("Aunty, are you well ?"). She says that the children keep her cheer up.

She only took 50/- for sewing the two slippers all around. And for brightening up my day with her smile and her cheer and her stories.