Women’s Day Special!

…. and the award for Debut performance as a Cobbler- Female goes to Lata Jadha, Powai Vihar, Mumbai

How many of you have ever come across a female cobbler? This was my first and hence the Debut award; have you ever wondered what is the feminine gender of Cobbler – is it Cobbleress or Cobblerina or Cobblerette? As a matter of fact there is No gender variant of cobbler, by Definition : “A shoe cobbler is a craftsman or woman who specializes in repairing shoes”

Makes sense, given the innate creativity and skills that most women possess to sew, knit, crochet etc… they should in fact make better cobblers than men, right?

I was disbelieving at first when a friend mentioned the existence of this lady cobbler, after several visits hunting around the neighbourhood, I finally found her ‘ bakda’ – shack open. I proceeded to start clicking her at work- she was surprised although slightly annoyed too at the intrusion. However, once I sat down on one of the three-planks-nailed together stool and started a conversation in Marathi, she immediately warmed up and smiled.

I had taken a bagful of shoes to repair too as a sweetener (clever me), so while examining the repairs for my footwear I managed to gather some information about this charming tough lady originally from Nashik. 

Latabai Jadhav married young naturally, maybe at 14 yrs, by her guestimate she is about 45 years old now, has a 32 year old married daughter, 2 sons both studying I was pleased to learn – one at school and one in college. When asked about her unusual profession she just shrugged and pointed to the framed poster of “ Rohit Das Baba” – a charmakar who went on to become a guru. 

She learnt on the job first from her father and then from her husband, has been giving shoes a new lease of life for over 20 years. She lives in an owned flat at Sangharsh Nagar, keeps her shop open between 10am and 3m only as she has other household chores to take care of and still earns anywhere between 50/- to 200/- per day.

Latabhai Jadhav, Charmakar/ Cobbler, Mobile: 9768411513

I threw her some challenges on repairing my footwear; she is being lazy and am pushing her; after a few trips in vain and several calls, she now recognises my voice and has promised to get creative in repairing my once-worn-otherwise wasted expensive shoes because of a bad nick or the heel getting messed up at somebody’s party on the lawns! Am looking forward to my new handcrafted shoes...