Stories of Artisans

Our family has been making musical instruments from hundred and fifty years. I was fifteen when I got into this, it has been thirty-three years now. Our business almost came to a standstill before 1984 but after ’84 it became alive with a wave of new young singers.

People know my worth in this town. They show their respect by calling me a professor or an artist. But what I do has a zero value in the market. All the craftsmen, who knew the art of carving patterns in wood and shading them, have passed away. I’m one of the last two artists left in the business

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 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.

Tongs are what I make. It’s been 40 years, I started in my early teens. Our father used to work as a farm labourer, usually helping with moving bales, we also followed him. But when the labour opportunities started to drop, we turned to making tongs.

Originally, we are from Bijnour, U.P. My grandfather came with a group of fishermen who got a contract to fish at Harike more than fifty years ago. After the contract was over, he decided to stay back while the others left.

My grandfather was a contractor during the British rule. He was an expert in working carpentry and masonry. Impressed by his work, in 1933 they gifted him a pocket watch made by Western Watch Company. Around 1970, he passed it on to me.

This may seem easy but it takes a lot a time to make a sickle. First I’ve to flatten an iron bar by beating it with full force. Then inside an iron piece, I have to fit a steel inlay which also comes in a bar.

I started this business of shoe-making in 1955, I was twenty years old then. My father was a farmer. I finished my matric in ‘54, it amounted to a lot in those days. I was offered a job of land revenue officer.

My father used to sit here earlier. I’ve been here for the last 20 years. He never let us help him with the work, instead, told us to go home and study. But when he passed away we had no alternative but to take over this profession.

My brother used to work in a cinema, in Muktsar. Those were the days of the reel and he made good money. He asked me to join him. I packed my stuff and went to live with him. From there I moved to Amritsar, Krishna theatre was one of the best in its peak times.