With the monsoon fast approaching, repair work has begun in my building. Masonry on the walls and stairwell has cracked deeply over the years. Ceilings threaten to cave in. Balustrades are broken, handrails missing, staircase slabs chipped away. Electrical fixtures hang exposed, wires dangle dangerously, pathways are pitted with potholes, drains are choked, sewage pipes cracked, boundary walls crumbling. Everywhere, paint peels in weary strips from old surfaces that have endured too many seasons.
So, there are now more labourers in the housing society than residents. Men in dust-covered clothes and faded bandanas. Smelling of honest sweat, cement powder, and cheap beedis. The building echoes with the sounds of repair. Sledgehammers striking walls. Crowbars prying loose damaged plaster. Drills whining. Tile-cutting machines screaming. Hollow sections are identified, broken open, packed with mortar, sealed with cement, and levelled carefully with a trowel. Cement sacks line the stairwell. Sand and water are mixed on the landing. Gravel sits in untidy mounds in the driveway. Dust hangs in the air like a fine mist.
But the part I like best comes after lunch. Tools are laid aside and the workers take a nap. Suddenly, there’s blissful silence. Like a power switch has been turned off. It is a ritual I have seen everywhere labourers work. No matter how demanding the job, or how pressing the deadline, there comes a point after the midday meal eaten sitting on the ground from newspapers, when they put their feet up and surrender briefly to sleep. Those 40 winks feel less like idleness and more like an unwritten clause in the global labour contract.
I envy the ease with which they switch off. It could be because energy levels drop after a meal. Or to escape the early afternoon heat. But this rest period is common among labourers universally. The Latinos call it a siesta, Italians know it as riposo, it’s xiuxi for the Chinese, inemuri for Japanese. In India, we have no formal word for it, but we understand it instinctively enough. It’s a power nap, because the labourers wake up charged and attack the building with renewed energy after that.
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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