4 min readMumbaiApr 14, 2017 02:52 AM IST
First published on: Apr 14, 2017 at 02:52 AM IST
Dayanand Gurav
DAYANAND GURAV’S ‘workplace’ is over a century old. Operating one of the earliest elevators of the country, 67-year-old Gurav continues to ferry people up and down the four-storey Navsari building in Fort as its liftman. Unlike automatic lifts with swift doors, Gurav has to manually turn a lever in a brass disk each time he has to stop or run the elevator.
The Virar resident’s first job over three decades ago was that of a watchman at a building in Juhu. One of his relatives informed Gurav about a job opening for a liftman at Navsari building.
“As a watchman, I had some experience of operating an automatic lift. I turned up for the job interview which took place inside this very lift,” he recalls. After briefly being explained about the manual mechanism of the lift, his employer accompanied Gurav for a few ‘rounds’ up and down till he was hired.
“Initially, I was scared. The moment you let go of the lever, the lift stops. It has to be stopped with precision at the exact floor entrance. I had difficulty in doing that but I got better in a few attempts and was then hired,” Gurav says.
That was 26 years ago. Now, Gurav who is well past his retirement age, is a chronicler of the lift’s rich history. He takes pride over the celebrity clientele the lift has seen. Gurav claims Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ratan Tata, Bal Thackeray and Shah Rukh Khan have traveled in the lift during their visits to an eye specialist in the building.
“Others step into the lift and think it is my cabin since it is so spacious and has well-maintained wood with an ornate bench to sit on. I laugh and tell them it is indeed a lift,” he says, beaming like a proud parent.
The lift itself has celebrity status, he says. “Each time the lift is featured in the media, many queue up to see it. We let people see it and if there is a child who is insistent to take a round, I take the child to the fourth floor and back,” he says. The lift maintained by Kotak and Company Private Limited has featured in advertisements and Bollywood film Being Cyrus.
Gurav says that the only occupational hazard he has experienced is that he keeps feeling restless at one place. “Even on my day-off, I keep moving around unable to sit still, maybe due to being in motion everyday in the lift for so many years now,” he says.
His work begins at 9.30 am when the offices in the building open and goes on till 6.30 pm. “I cannot travel from Virar in the peak hour anymore. So, I take a train at 5 am and reach the lift at 7.30 am. I sleep on the bench till 9 am and then freshen up with chai and get ready for the day,” Gurav says.
“Over a year ago, I wanted to retire. But, the owners of the building asked me to continue working. I like this work. I feel like I am part of the lift’s history too. There is no other lift like this one in the city,” he says.
Dayanand Gurav
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