एच सी धार वाला, एच सी धार वाला |
He shouted twice and immediately I knew who it was. I turned and ran towards him, the man I saw almost after so many years. I used to see him often when I was a child but this was some 20-25 years ago.
Do you know whom I’m talking about? Meet Hussian Choudhary who says he’s a human sharpener and he was one of the most important people of yesteryears. In olden times, there were no disposables knives so people used to reuse their knives again and again.
He came from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh many years ago and started working in a factory. The factory shut down and he took the job of sharpening knives; many years ago. He was quite busy today as a nearby restaurant had given him all their knives to sharpen.
He was quite busy but was humble enough to take out a few minutes for me while doing his sharpening business.
Looks like his business was not going well these days and he was quite annoyed by what to do for a living shortly? This put me in deep thoughts and I observed that how new technology and practices are replacing, rather killing old practices and so many people will be adversely affected because neither they nor the system has helped them learn a new craft.
He asked me the reason for the conversation with him. I told him that a very interesting thing.
The First 15 years of my life were spent with books; the next 15 years were spent with computers and computer-generated creatures. Now, I want to spend time with real people, and learn life, see life from their point-of-view.
He was quite convinced and happy about this. There was, fortunately, a young boy passing by and I told him that I need to collect these stories for future generations, otherwise they’ll never know of such antique people and their antique profession.
My mission is to preserve stories of such a human sharpener who keeps my mind sharpened and alive.
