Articles by Purna Sarkar

Think of a cobbler or an electric appliance repair worker, you may picture a man at work. But Bengaluru has quite a few women working in these fields which were traditionally occupied by men. This article traces a few of those journeys. Palaniyammal, 54, is the sole woman cobbler on 80 Feet Road, with her shop located near the posh residential areas of Thippasandra and Indiranagar. She works from 10 am till 8 pm. She fondly remembers her late husband's insistence that she visit the shop. She learnt the work by watching him. After he passed away, she quietly slipped…

In India, repair is ubiquitous and it is cheap. There is always a repairer at the street corner or on the footpath or under a tree or even under staircases. Of course, there are repairers with shops or stalls or mobile carts. The informal sector provides earnings for an overwhelming majority of the skilled population but it fails to provide social security. During the lockdown, many of us would have quietly shifted to work from home. But in the informal sector, it was a crisis from the first day as they were being robbed of their basic right to work on the street.…

Repair Café is organising its 5th workshop on March 19th 2016. It is being hosted by The Green Path situated at Seshadripuram, from 11.30 am to 4 pm. Apart from repairing and upcycling, other highlights of the workshop include Talk show on Water Conservation by Aditi Hastak from Biome Workshop on basics of Kitchen Gardening Screening of a documentary film, Economics Of Happiness So what is Repair Café?  Repair Café is a community gathering where repairers, volunteers, visitors come together for the purpose of repairing household articles. A repair man busy at work. Pic: Purna Sarkar Since our first Repair…