The fix for your footwear
Glimpsing into a fellow citizen’s life
This is “joote chappalon ka beauty parlour,” the salon for shoes and flip-flops. }
Here in Delhi’s Rafi Marg. All kinds of “bejaan joote,” lifeless shoes, are beautified. And the “charam chikitsik,” the skin specialist, is Ram Saroop.
The banner’s Hindi is playful but Ram Saroop clarifies it isn’t his. The shoe repairer explains he received it from the “government,” along with a “certificate” in a training camp he attended three years ago. But the idea of Ram Saroop undergoing training in shoe making is preposterous. He’d rather give training to others. The man is 55, has been a shoe repairer since 12, and he inherited the profession from father, Dubaliya, who inherited it from his father. “This is our khandani pesha,” Ram Saroop mutters, raising his eyes from his glasses. While his greased hands continue to be busy with a torn sole placed on the metallic paidan, or stand.
Delhi-born Ram Saroop is a native of MP. It was his father who left the village for the city. “Papa became shaant when I was very young,” he says, referring to his father’s death. He was obliged to quit the school at fourth grade, and started to earn for the family.
Recalling the aforementioned “training camp,” Ram Saroop says it was to last for three months but “they saw my work, and they gave me the certificate the very first day.” By now, his father’s inheritance has passed down to one of his three sons. Ranjit specialises in repairing sports shoes, and works from home. While sons Vinay and Sachin work elsewhere, employed in other professions.
Commuting daily from his home in distant Welcome to Rafi Marg for 30 years, Ram Saroop admits of seeing a great deal of transformation in the capital. “Earlier, this was a jungle here, and look now at the traffic on the road.”
And what changes have the years brought to his life?
Ram Saroop takes out a beedi from his pocket, raises his face and looks up towards a tree, silently.
Minutes pass.
Glancing at a row of shiny leather shoes, he says he made them from scratch (a pair is for 700 rupees).
The stall opens daily from 9am to 6pm. Sunday closed.