Day: April 6, 2022

Hookah business is slow these days; it used to be good before 1947. There were eight workshops here, now it’s just me. I was an apprentice with a hookah maker for four years. I learnt the craft from him. My grandfather was into some other field of work.

My ancestral village is Mehatpur, near Nakodar. I am over 50 years. I have studied till the fourth standard. I could have studied further, but my brothers had me leave school to go to Calcutta; my father had been working there for 20 years. I worked there for 10 years. When our father died, we moved to Malerkotla.

I am the Brass Bandmaster. We only play the wedding song tunes with the musical organs and instruments; military bands also perform steps. We have three kinds of programs – turbaned Punjabi band, Folk Punjabi band in Bhangra dance attire, and Pahadi band.

My forefathers, who had lived in Pakistan, were also ironsmiths. They made ploughs, yokes, and other tools for the farmers. It used to be called sepi. Our village was Baar, near Burewala. I was named after the name of the village.

We are from Amritsar. We moved to Mohali in 1996. Livelihood makes people shift places. There is an adage that you move somewhere if you have to pay someone’s debt there. I must have owed some debt here.

My name is Balbir Kaur. My paternal village is Daghaat near BhadsoN. It was my aunt who taught me this craft. I can do embroidery and knit sweaters. I have done all kinds of work – cotton picking, chilli picking, yarning the cotton. I know how to knit cotton shawls too.

Our village is home to many Jathedars (leaders) of Damdami Taksal of Sikh faith. For generations, we have been engraving the traditional weapons; we are the fourth generation. Being artisans, our forefathers could make anything from a wagon to a rifle.

We are from Farala. It is a village near Banga (district Nawan Shehar). My father had lived with his maternal grandparents in Doraha near Ludhiana. After my father’s mother passed away, and the stepmother neglected him, his maternal uncles took care of him.

I got married in 1975. That same year I went to Austria. There were a few of us who travelled by road at that time. Eventually, our visas expired after a year. We were expelled and forced to cross over to Yugoslavia. Fortunately, I had some money to travel back.

I am 45 years old now. I passed the 10th grade in 1989 and started making horseshoes in 1990, I must be 15 or 16 years old then. In those days this profession was enough to pay the bills, I never felt the need to apply for an actual job.