A life of many starts
A tailor’s career upended by the pandemic
He is one of those rare people who dared to take a chance late in life, by migrating to a more promising city to restart a flagging career.
In his case, it was a success.
After being “stabbed in the back” by a business partner in his small leather trade, Muhammed Israil moved from hometown Kanpur to Gurugram about a decade ago—he was then in his 50s—and went on to establish himself as an accomplished “ladies tailor” in a series of clothing shops. He is in his 60s now. Everything was going reasonably well in life until the coronavirus pandemic happened. “The businesses closed, the shops shuttered, we tailors fell out of work,” says Mr Israil. He is talking on WhatsApp video from... well, hometown Kanpur, with one of his grandchildren perched on his lap.
Mr Israil has left the Millennium City for now. He acknowledges the reverse migration in a matter-of-fact voice. Gesturing towards his white flowing beard, he says, “I always used to dye it black, but now I have given up.” He explains he never meant to give up on Gurugram where he still keeps a rented house in Devi Lal Colony—he originally left for Kanpur only for a brief break in early March to be with his two sons who live there (he has four), and who both work in a factory on the UP town’s outskirts. “I actually quit the tailoring shop in Sadar Bazar where I had recently been working.” He had a return train ticket for Gurugram a few weeks later, and was planning to find work as a “tailor master” in another clothing shop in the same area. (He has switched shops very often, he says, a habit that is apparently considered “normal” in his profession). At that time nobody had any clue about how much havoc the virus would play all around the world, he notes.
His other two sons continued to live in Gurugram. “One of them is a tailor like me, and the other is a shop salesman. “Both of them eventually lost their jobs and returned to their father in Kanpur as soon as the train services restarted. “And now we all are back to where we started,” says Mr Israil. Recalling his years of youth, Mr Israil says his life has been forced by circumstances to see too many false starts. He inherited the profession of “tailory” from his father in Kanpur. Almost all his early life he helped rustle out parts of “plane furniture” for a firm that would supply upholstery for aircraft of the Indian Air Force. Eventually, the contract changed hands and “our work ended.” Betrayals in the leather business he started later led him to quit Kanpur for Gurugram. “And finally I thought I had settled.”
Now he must start yet again, he sighs. Mr Israil admits he can let himself and his wife be cared for by his sons “but they struggle to support their own families in the best of times... and I still want to work.” Despite the anxieties about “how to make a living in these times”, Mr Israil doesn’t sound worried at all. He speaks calmly, as if in control of events. “That’s not true, I have no control,” he clarifies with a chuckle. Nevertheless, he believes that “in the end it will all be good.”
He has already sent feelers in (Gurugram’s) Sadar Bazaar that he is actively searching for work. “As soon as I get some solid assurance, I will catch the first train to Gurgaon.” And then will start a new chapter in life, yet again.