The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Perky ‘stitch man’ on wheels

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Saturday, Dec 13, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Perky ‘stitch man’ on wheels

K. Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy

Poojala Satyanarayana runs a mobile tailoring unit with a sewing machine on a push cart

P. Satyanarayana at work.

HYDERABAD: He ascribes the credit of his novel idea to the ruthlessness of life and his survival instinct. Poojala Satyanarayana, a tailor who earns his daily bread by floating an innovative business has made people stand up and take note of his business.

His ‘A to Z tailor shop’, a mobile tailoring unit, is a head turner wherever he goes. Operating with just a mobile phone (9290153188) and a sewing machine, he goes about on his pushcart attending to calls in the area.

Idea for shop

After being denied a place to keep his machines on the roadside, he hit upon the novel idea. “Left with no other alternative I was thinking of a way out when I got the idea to operate a tailor shop from a push cart while making effective use of technology through cell phone,” says Mr. Satyanarayana.

This arrangement has come in handy for the mobile tailor. “Now I have the mobility as well as readiness to move to customers’ places according to their need,” he avers. Although most of his business is concentrated in Narayanaguda, he sometimes goes even to distant places such as Banjara Hills, Kompally and Kukatpally taking his machine along.

Decisive step

Hailing from Mudimanikyam village in Nalgonda district, Mr. Satyanarayana came to the city one and half years ago in search of a livelihood. After a three-month unhappy stint as a costume tailor for a film studio, he moved to Narayanaguda in search of work.

However, he doesn’t earn much. “As most of the work I get to do ranges from alteration of readymade garments and repair of old clothes, my profit margins are very low,” Mr. Satyanarayana says. “I cannot work on stitching new clothes as I do not have a table to do the cutting work,” he says.

Interestingly, he wants to go back to his village once he earns Rs.1 lakh. He is also into teaching his art and already has a shishya learning the craft at his base in Narayanaguda. “I also teach women free of cost every time I visit my village,” he says. He wants to train a few more youth and is on the lookout for donors to buy a sewing machine.

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