Occupation: Sells Jamuns
Care for some jamuns? This medicinal fruit is said to be able to control diabetes. These jamuns come from Andhra Pradesh. My boss travels there every week to place orders. I have been running this jamun stall for a few weeks now. The season for jamuns, however, is coming to an end. The jamuns cost Rs. 70 for a quarter of a kilogram.
People seem to like the sweet and sour taste of the jamuns. You need to rinse them in running water, drain them and then put them in a container with a little rock salt and shake it up together with the lid on. This way, they become nice and mushy, with the salt beautifully rounding off the tartness.
Once the jamun season is over, I will be selling some other seasonal fruit, whatever my boss wants to sell. As my stall is on the road to Kovalam, I get reasonable sales though the occasional showers do play spoilsport. The beach umbrella above my stall protects me from the vagaries of the weather.
I come from a family of goldsmiths. My father, Rajan, was a goldsmith at Anchuthengu. I studied till class five and started assisting him as he did not have the means to continue my education. When my sister got married, we shifted to Nagercoil. But when business turned bad, I took up plumbing and later went to Tirupur to work in the garment industry. I am back in the city running this stall as business in Tirupur has taken a dip of late. Most of us in the small time goldsmith business have entered other fields to survive.
My boss has four other stalls in other parts of the city with a person manning each stall. My fellow vendors and I have rented a room in Chalai. It’s a small room and is rather crowded with the five of us. My day begins with me preparing breakfast and lunch. I start work at 10 a.m. and am on my feet till 8 p.m. I am exhausted by the end of the day. After cooking dinner, washing my clothes and having a bath, I hit the bed. I lead an extremely frugal life as I support my parents, wife and child back home in Nagercoil. My salary right now depends on the day’s sales. I am looking for better job opportunities. I hope to go to West Asia one day. I have heard that life and work there is much better. I want a better life for my son. He is one year old right now.
(A weekly column on the men and women who make Thiruvananthapuram what it is)
