RESILIENCE

I was born with three older sisters and have been married for over 30 years. These ladies, who have had a great influence in my life, gave me the impression that selecting their clothes was a simple affair. My wife selects her dresses in a jiffy and my immediate elder sister pushes my limits of patience a bit – that is about it. Then imagine my surprise when my niece called me from the US and asked me to talk to her “tailor” on 5^th for an appointment to meet him. Well, amused as I was, I did call the “tailor” on 5^th evening and he graciously agreed to meet us on the next day evening. He was very polite and sounded sophisticated. He rattled off an address in Royapettah, Chennai which I was not familiar. When I enquired about the route, he asked me a plain question” Will you be coming by car or scooter?” Knowing Royapettah and its by lanes, I would have preferred a scooter but considering the “US” niece, I said I would be coming in my car. He respectfully added that I cannot drive my car into his street! When I further quizzed him about the route, he asked me “Are you on Whatapp?” A “tailor” asking me this – I was dumbfounded. Once I responded in the affirmative, I got his directions in a minute.

The next day I set out with my niece following his directions meticulously. During the course of the drive, my niece told me that the “tailor” was Joy and he was also a dancer! We reached a place where I parked my car and then went looking out for Joy walking into those lanes. Forget my car, I could not have driven my scooter there. Then I called him as I was going in circles and he came out of an even narrower lane and called me waving at me. I saw him and with great trepidation entered his “shop”.

An American, after his first visit to India, once said, “India is like a snake holding its own tail. The head is in the 21^st century and its tail in the 17^th!” Well, I could now understand what he meant. Joy’s place, though in the midst of a noisy and crowded by lane, was tastefully decorated. I could see the sign “J O Y Boutique” with the tag line “Clothes that speak!” I never knew clothes could speak. The lighting bulbs were covered with tastefully designed bamboo coverings, with the partitions to the tailoring area decorated using jute screens. There were stacks of stitched clothes neatly packed and waiting to be delivered to customers. I was impressed. He certainly had taste.

We introduced ourselves and he was a very pleasant man, may be in his forties, I guessed. He was smartly dressed in a shorts and a kurta – perhaps a designer one. He spoke impeccable English. My niece wanted to stitch a few blouses and had brought one for measurement that had a few glitches. He wanted her to wear it and point out the defects. As she went about her business, I, the compulsory conversationalist, started a dialogue with Joy. What I heard in the next 10 minutes left me astounded.

Joy was a Bharathanatiyam dancer from the Kalashetra School of dance. He had performed in many countries and had been to the US also several times. Once, a few years ago, while performing in Sri Lanka, he fell off a trampoline and hurt himself very badly and was almost paralyzed neck downwards. He suffered from what is medically termed “quadriparesis” He had to be airlifted to Chennai and was in a hospital for close to three months. He was in rehabilitation for over 2 years and slowly regained strength in his limbs. Though dance was his first love, he could not go back again. Hence he started his own boutique designing women’s clothes.

The psychologist in me popped up the question “Were you not depressed?” He replied with a gentle smile “Yes, at times, but I did not allow it to get the better of me. My family and close friends supported me to the hilt. But for their love and the Grace of Lord, I would not have made it. I don’t dwell on the past but am grateful that I am back and doing my best for my customers”. I had tears in my eyes, as here I was seeing a man who was dealt a cruel blow by fate and there he was resilient, strong and cheerful as anyone can be. Hats off to you Joy, I told him. I was reminded of Rudyard Kipling’s beautiful poem “If you can keep your head …you’ll be a Man my son!” I rarely get to meet people like Joy. More often than not, I meet people who crib about small things – how life is unfair to them. As he went back into the tailoring area, I could see him walk with a very slight drag of his leg – remarkable mobility for a man who probably would not have even walked!

My niece gave instructions and then gave about 6 or 7 blouse pieces for stitching. Then I saw Joy, the master designer at work. For each of the blouses he sketched on a notebook a new design based on the fabric colour and patterns. This was sheer magic for a person like me who cannot even draw a straight line for all the money in the world. Within no time he completed the designs and then I knew this “tailor” was no ordinary “tailor”. He was a master craftsman who really brought “Joy” to his customers. And Joy is a classic example living the adage “The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and tribulations!"

May your good work continue, Joy! God bless you.

You can know more about Joy and work in his FB page (yes he has a FB page as well!).

As I took leave of him, two things became apparent – clothes do speak and stitching women’s clothes is after all no ordinary matter!