Livelihood: I don't claim to be expert at the work that I don't know

Anil Subba

Author

"The only thing that helped me in my sorrows and happiness was my sewing skill and the machine. Sometimes friends and relatives questioned me, 'What are you doing?  Why sew other people's clothes?  That's the same work already done by our ancestors. Do something new, something else'"

Dil Bahadur Darji's footsteps fall on the sewing machine's pedal before the early morning sun embraces the earth with its warmth. With the rumbling of his machine, his day starts. Back in the day,  he lived in Adhipur Khalange Baajho, Ward No 8. Currently, he resides in Chulachuli Ward No. 4, Ilam.  He has the responsibilities of two daughters, his mother-in-law, and his wife. And, the fate of his family members lies on his machine and his shoulders.

Dil Bahadur recalls his old days, "My grandfather used to sew clothes and my father continued this line of work. I have also continued it. I have been doing this for 34 years and I am still doing it."  He adds with a mild smile, "My father encouraged me to study so that I would not suffer like him." It was around 2028/29 BS, there were only four of us studying in Himalaya Secondary School in Himabi, Damak from Khalange. I studied there till the ninth grade.

 


 


He owns two machines, one that of his late father and the other bought by him. He has named them 'small machine' and 'big machine'.  "After my father passed, my his machine also retired." When working, the sight of that machine makes him feel close to his father. 

Likewise, he mentions more than half of his colleagues have stopped using a machine to sew showing various reasons. The pretext was of this abandonment was caste-based discrimination.  Lately, news of numerous incidents of caste-based violence has been heard, seen, and read.  It is heart-breaking to hear about such incidents. Why don't people treat  'humans' like 'humans'?  What is it about us that makes them feel we are untouchable?  This question sometimes haunts him.


The journey of Dil Bahadur's life so far has not been as easy as said.  At one point, the greed for a good job drove him to Gulf, where there were about 3,000 Nepali workers like him. There, too, he spent about nine years sewing jeans and T-shirts. The process of marriage, separation, and reunion of children continued.

"The only thing that helped me in my sorrows and happiness was my sewing skill and the machine. Sometimes friends and relatives questioned me, 'What are you doing?  Why sew other people's clothes?  That's the same work already done by our ancestors. Do something new, something else'" he says. But all these things did not make any difference to him. Instead of quitting this job, he spent all his time wishing to sew better than his father and to find an even better way to satisfy his customers.

"I have never advertised in my life, my work speaks for itself.  In about forty years, I sewed hundreds of thousands of pairs of Shirt-Pants, Daura Suruwal, School Dresses, Gunyucholi... This work became my advertisement.  Let my clients search me on the basis of the quality of my work", he says proudly. 



He further adds, "Nowadays every once in a while the government offers three months of sewing training.  But what after that? Is that enough? No one cares about this job."  He expressed his dissatisfaction with the government's policy. "

He does not have to measure his regular customers.  "I don't claim to be expert at the work that I don't know.  Probably that's why I haven't had to suffer at my work to this day", he says.

"When sewing a piece of cloth, if it is done with a motive of doing it for someone, it gets spoiled. One must understand it as art and treat it as such", he says. This is how he understands his art and profession. 

Apart from sewing clothes at home with his family, he sometimes earns up to Rs 20,000 by doing 'pooja' work. Dil Bahadur, a friendly tailor, not only sews other's clothes but his own too. He thinks for a moment and explains, "I don't like clothes sewn by others. I am the only one who knows about my comfort and discontents. That's why I sew my clothes by myself."

यदि तपाईंसँग कुनै लेखरचना वा मूलधारका मिडियाबाट किनारीकृत मुद्दा तथा विषयहरू छन् भने हामीलाई [email protected] मा पठाउनुहोस् ।

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