OUR TAILOR

Kanki was a good tailor in our village. He was asked to come home whenever our wardrobe had to be replenished. One day ‘Appachan’ asked him to take measurements and gave him adequate cloth to make a new set of clothes for us to attend my uncle’s wedding. We loved the cream coloured silk shirts and the matching dark green trousers which he tailored for Jacob and me. Those were our first silk shirts and we were so happy to possess one of those elegant ones. In a few days he brought it home and we tried it on. ‘Ammachi’ said it was a perfect fit for both of us. We wore it for the first time for the marriage of Alex uncle, ‘Ammachi’s younger brother, who used to stay in Kumbalam while he was studying in Sacred Heart College at Thevara.

Pappu and Vasu were the other expert tailors for ladies. Much later Vakkachan Maniamkot underwent training in Jos Brothers at Ernakulam town and started a tailoring unit to cater to the later trends in the tailoring field. This gave the islanders a wonderful opportunity to stich latest model shirts and pants at affordable rates. The money spend on stitching circulated in the village itself was another attraction.

At present, Vakkachan finds it difficult to get new apprentices to do the odd jobs. Therefore, he is gradually shifting into readymade business. Why youngsters aren’t interested to join as a trainee to become a popular tailor in due course? The globalization and investments have brought in a lot of opportunity in this country. Therefore, those in the primary sector moved into the secondary and those in the secondary to the tertiary level. This has affected all the skilled jobs as well as professional jobs. Now the primary level casual or unskilled and skilled jobs in Kumbalam, to a larger extent, are carried on by Tamilians, Bengalis, Biharis and Rajasthanis. They too have also started charging prohibitive wages. This, no doubt, would badly affect the agricultural economy of the country and affect money supply in the State of Kerala.

Excerpts from

MEMOIRS

An autobiography

by

Joseph J. Thayamkeril

Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.

josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com

josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com