The profession of sharpening domestic knives and scissors has been around forever. This occupation, which is generally reserved for men, needs special expertise, that of judging the correct angle, the length of the blade, the intensity of sharpness, and the strength, which depend entirely on the purpose for which the object (to be sharpened) has been designed.
Winter is a good season for these people as they get the business of sharpening the blades that effortlessly divide raw mangoes into the required number of pieces, used for making the ever-famous and ubiquitous mango pickle. Also, there is a small, age-old cutting equipment that ladies use for chopping mustard leaves, spinach, and even fenugreek – all that a lady has to do is to sit on the floor, press the board under one of her feet, and push the bunch of the vegetable with both her hands on either side of the crescent-shaped blade. These artisans also sharpen the edges of sickles, weeding hooks and axes. So, in a way, it is a B-2-B as well as a B-2-C business.
The round whetstone on the outer circumference of which these people run their knives etc., has to revolve at a certain speed, without which the required sharpness is but unachievable. Like most of the artisans, Mohsin, 26, the young lad I interviewed had got his bicycle transformed into a mobile workshop: the rear wheel had a spool attached to the spokes, which, when rotated, moves a belt going around the pulley of the whetstone clamped on to the front bar of his bicycle and make it revolve at a fast speed. All that Mohsin had to do was to put his bicycle on a stand, sit on the rear carrier, and pedal away, starting thereby the process of sharpening with sparks emitting as in a piece of firework…Neither does he need any electrical connection, nor does his workshop use up any fuel – it’s, therefore, a non-smoke-emitting, and environment-friendly workshop.
“I change my place of work every day and people are usually aware of which day and where I will be available, I also have a mobile phone and I deliver my services right to people’s doorsteps. It usually happens that when I conduct my business outside anybody’s house, the neighbours also suddenly feel the necessity of sharpening their blunt knives and scissors. At people’s houses, it is always the women folk or the maids whom I get to meet.
I am married, I have 5 children and they all go to school. With regard to this profession, to tell you the truth, I have had enough of it – This traditional profession must end here as, with the advent of German, and Japanese tampered stainless steel and the several new methods of sharpening either with machine tools or with the other gadgets, this profession would eventually see the last day of its life.”
