In this series of narratives, I shall recount random encounters with people : something in their lives struck a chord in me and by sharing it with you it might make you reflect on your own…….

The Cobblers come to Chango

We hurried through the narrow lanes between the stone houses, the warm August sunshine a very welcome ingredient in the invigorating air at 10,000 feet in the Kinnaur Himalaya of Himachal Pradesh, India. The breeze rustled the leaves of the apricot trees in a comforting, caressing sort of way, not disturbing the golden yellow fruit that hung in abundance from the branches. A group of laughing, screamin children overtook us, kicking up a little dust storm in their wake, flecks of quartz glinting briefly in the shafts of sunlight. The village of Chango was wide awake and expectant.
By the time we arrived at the little open space which served as the village square, the main act had begun. Propped against a wall, two men squatted on the ground, surrounded by a heap of footwear to be repaired. There were shoes and sandals and slippers of all sorts and sizes, in various degrees of deterioration that needed the healing touch of these two annual visitors. I added my battered pair of trekking boots to the pile. The two men nodded their heads and continued to hammer a nail into the sole of an old leather shoe on the awl.
Work progressed rapidly and the pieces that were done were handed back to their owners, a little banter was exchanged, a price was decided upon, money changed hands, and everyone seemed to be happy. As the morning wore on, I managed to slip in a couple of questions while thick needles threaded gut strengthened twine through layers of leather which weaved neat little patterns on various parts of the toe, heel, or sole of the shoes. The two men, who appeared to be in their mid thirties, patiently answered all my queries and I was fascinated by their story.

Ram and Shyam (not their real names…. I would have used their real names if only I had had the foresight at that time to note it down!) hailed from a small village in Rajasthan and had been boyhood friends. As they grew up, they formed a great working partnership as a pair of cobblers. At some point in their early adult life, they decided to hit the road and become itinerant shoe doctors. Beginning with small forays in Rajasthan and Haryana, they soon widened their horizon and headed north. They traveled with the tools of their trade and some basic luggage and would arrive in an unknown village and spread the word around. As they ventured into Kashmir and onwards into Ladakh, they began to realize that theirs was a skill not exactly common in many isolated communities in the mountains, and perhaps they had found a niche. They drifted down to Lahul and Spiti from Ladakh and onwards into Kinnaur. As the summer progressed, hundreds, perhaps thousands of pairs of shoes were repaired and rejuvenated by their skillful hands. The fee that they charged were very modest but the goodwill that they earned was huge. The people of the hamlets and villages that they served began to rely on Ram and Shyam every year and would save up even the tiniest of repair jobs for these two.
When my friends and I met the shoe doctors in 1995, they had been going on their annual road trip for almost a decade. The travails of traveling such a vast distance, constantly practicing their trade, over high mountain passes and in all kinds of weather, of putting their bedding down for the night wherever they found refuge and a kindly hearth to cook their food over, struck me as a true indicator of their fortitude. I am sure they did not make a huge fortune and to this day I admire whatever spirit of adventure that propelled them this far from their native lands. 

The village of Chango in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India. The Spiti river flows down on the right.

The “spirit of adventure” may be a term that was invented by the leisure class who had the means to indulge in pursuits not really needed for mere survival. Whatever you may call it, some phantom desire does inhabit the souls of men and women from all walks of life and nudges them out of their comfort zone and rewards them with a rich tapestry of experience that adds lustre to their lives.

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