Roadside Tailor

This lady has her business set up on the street outside the boundary wall of a mansion. The house's overhanging vines lend the otherwise very basic set up she has some shade and beauty. She has elevated her workspace with bricks and bits. She uses an old fashioned pedal powered sewing machine as she has no access to electricity and even if she did, it's probably too expensive. Pedal power keeps her costs low.

Roadside businesses like fruit stands, shoe repairs and tailors are a regular sight in the residential areas of Delhi and are just a few of many services available that are part of the informal economy. The businesses are mobile or set up outside homes or in the unused space between homes and laneways. The stall holder needs the permission of the building's owner or pay a weekly bribe to the police, frequently both. The bribe is referred to as the hafta, a Hindi word meaning week. It's a common and accepted practice and the police go around collecting their hafta and are able to supplement well their official salaries. What isn't common however, is seeing a woman running one of these roadside tailoring businesses. For a profession often considered to be the domain of women, tailoring in India is often done by men.

This lady does mainly alterations on outfits that have been dropped off in plastic bags which are sitting in a colourful assortment at her feet. She will accept what work she can finish by day's end and the bags will be collected by the owner or their domestic help. At dusk, the tailor packs up her sewing machine and leaves it overnight with the doorman of the mansion.

The next day she sets up again. Overnight, there is no trace left of her business. If she decided not to return or circumstances stopped her from doing so, we'd never know what happened. Most people wouldn't know her name, let alone be interested to ask her story.

There was a man who had the space before her for his tailoring business .

We asked about him and she told us he had gone. When we prodded further and asked where, she raised her face, looked to the skies and said he'd gone up. Left this earth. Apparently he'd seek some respite from the truth of his tough existence in the comforting lies of alcohol. The bottle finished his life and with that all his worries.