Dear Friends;
The piece below is from today's London Metro ( Sept 5). Could not post
the pictures, though.
-bhuban
Puncture ? No, problem, the missus will sort it
By Joel Taylor
DRESSED in a sari and headdress and wielding a tyre iron, Shanta Devi
may not fit everone’s picture of a lorry mechanic.
But the mother of eight, believed to be the only woman mechanic of
India, also employs her 55-year old husband Ram Bahadur.
The 50-year old who lives on the outskirts of Delhi, not only runs a
home , but has run her garage for 18 years, working 12 hours a day,
seven days a week.
‘I love my job,’ she said. ‘It’s hard work, but I wouldn’t have it any
other way. I’d be bored if I was sat at home.’
They used to run a tea stall on a main truck route and, while just
surviving on their takings, saw the potential in learning the motor
trade.
With her encouragement they decided to learn the basics from a friend
and invested all their savings into buying tools.
Now they earn 48,000 rupees (£650) a month in the peak summer months,
where some only manage 2,000 rupees.(£26).
‘I’ve managed to give my children a lot and we have a nice house, she
said.
Mrs Bahadur works at the AW-7 Sanjay Gandhi Nagar Transport Depot,
outside Delhi, spread over 75 acres, it is one of the largest truck
stopovers in Asia.
It seems her fellow mechanics respect her. ‘They call me Auntie’, she
said. ‘It is nice that they look up to me. I know that I am a better
mechanic than many of them here. I prove it through my work.'
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