BY ROQUE DIAS | NT NETWORK
MARGAO: He sits at the walking space, surrounding the Margao Municipal Council building and arranges the shoes in order to mend them. He knows how fix a tattered sole or a gaping hole; he will charm his way into your heart with his smile.
A stitch in time saves nine. He, through his rich 35-years experience in the cobbler profession by now can deduce a person by simply looking at their footwear as he put it, “a person’s footwear can speak a lot about him or her.”
Mr Madhav Korte was born and brought in Goa and at a tender age, he picked up the ropes of the trade from his cobbler father. Today, he is 54 years old and mends articles from school bags, men and women footwear, to shopping bags, gloves, umbrellas, etc. He says with a sigh “we (cobblers) are remembered when your good pair of shoes gets a tear and you are held up because of it. Else, cobblers are always looked at differently.”
Like Mr Korte, there are several cobblers eking a livelihood in the commercial capital of the state, Margao. Each of them, start their day as early as 8 am and earn around Rs 150 to 200 per day, depending upon the number of customers that come.
“Around 100 cobblers, with their nimble fingers mend shoes in the city,” says another cobbler, speaking to this reporter. He insists on not disclosing his identity because, he says his children feel embarrassed. “Our children would certainly not continue with this profession. They shy away from it,” he speaks as he goes about his job using hammers, awls, needles, and threads.
There are four places in the heart of Margao city where these cobblers work. They operate near Pimple Ped area, near Communidade building, near the Collectorate, and near State Bank of India besides the Margao Municipal Council where the maximum numbers of cobblers are found.
“We feel dejected very often, when we see people, especially the youth, coming to us to mend their new branded shoes—some as old as a day. It seems shoe companies no longer place importance on durability and quality shoes”. Mending shoes, is also an art, argues another cobblers, adding that he fails to understand why people look down lowly on the work they do. “Every job has its own significance and importance”, he says proudly.
Mr Korte adds, “Our business increases during summers. There are times when people get stuck in the middle of their journey because their shoe is broken. They come to us and we repair the shoe despite the fact that sometimes they do not pay us at the moment itself.” The municipal councilors never trouble us says another. “We are not harassed by these officials as we always obediently and meticulously work here,’” they say.
These cobblers reveal that they have had opportunities to study different attitudes of people who come to him—young and old, rich and poor. Life has been an enriching one with different struggles and experiences, muses a cobbler.
