The Cobbler and his moral worthiness

Om Prakash, 71 years old, nowadays a cobbler by occupation lives in R. S. Pura Jammu. He is actually a native of Pak Administered Kashmir (PaK). In 1947 on partition of Baharat into India and Pakistan, when Om Prakash was not yet even born, his family migrated to Jammu. In 1965, when Om Prakash was just 16 years old, he started working as a labourer and moved outside the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He had worked as a labourer in many states of India like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and almost every state of northern India. He for some time worked as a truck – conductor in Maharashtra. Since, he found that job not suitable for him as he always used to do work with dignity and “dignity of work”, as he said is the most important thing that keeps you honest and humble in your life. In 2002, he came back to Jammu and started working as a Cobbler. Since then, from last 18 years, he is working as a cobbler at a place in Panjtirthi Jammu, just opposite to the Jamia Masjid in Ustaad MohallaKachi Chawni. I most often used to visit this cobbler during my MBBS college days whenever I used to went city for some work. I could get my shoes polished there and always saw him charging a fair amount. One day I offered some extra money to him, he refused to take. On other occasion, I had to paid him an amount that was more than he could charge. I told him to keep this extra money; he refused and told that he would polish shoes next time for that extra amount of money. I could see elite class persons visiting him and getting their shoes polished there. Anyways, the advices he put forth before me are always worth to imbibe.
The good thing is that we could learn and realize a lot of things whenever we intimate such kind-hearted persons in our society. I owe a lot of respect to this man, who being in this age, is working hard with dignity and devotion to earn their livelihood and feed their family. Above all he is serving the humanity with his calibre and honesty. He is an inspiration that gives us courage and strength to work with passion and energy in this young age. I would quote some lines that instill us some realisation how important a cobbler is in our society, “Whenever we have to go for a party or function, we could check our shoes many times if there is any dust stitched. If we go to the party with our shoes in this mal – condition, we would fear that if anybody might tease us. That time, a cobbler is an artist who puts his whole soul in our shoes and meshes them with charm and light. And then we would feel confident and fearless enough to go to the party or function.”
(The author a Medical Practitioner at SMVD Narayana Super Specialty Hospital, Jammu is also a motivational speaker, activist,columnist and a top educator awardee. Views are his own)
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